Fearless Angel
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: They had been guardians for well over 17 yrs.They had seen every evil,every depraved act imaginable and still human beings surprised them.Lily Ericson was no different until she saved Mikey's life at the risk of her own. Leo/OC rated M
1. Chapter 1

It was just another night, the winter had brought temperature drops well into the thirties. And even though it was absolutely fridgid outside it didn't stop them from patrolling.

After all Manhatten was their home, the people walking the streets were their people- _Innocent. __Defenseless. _They protected these people from the shadows and were well accustomed to the discomfort of their jobs.

They had been sitting, perched on a rooftop by mainstreet when they caught a glimpse of a most curious sight. A girl about fourteen years old, with mid back length black hair that fell in curled and waved, wearing a pair of jeans, some leather boots, and a white jacket with pale blue snowflakes on it, was walking down the street among the crowd.

And while that in itself wasn't unusual, what was was the fact that she looked like she was no older than fourteen or fifteen, and it was well past midnight. Electric blue eyes narrowed as the leader made a hand sign for his companions to follow him. As the guardians of the city it was their job to follow the girl and make sure that she came to no harm.

They followed her for about half a block before she slipped into a corner market and bought some food then came back out again and took a few alley's (much to their horror and disbelief) and was almost back to the point where they had first saw her when she ran into some purple dragons.

"Well, well, look what we got here boys. A little lost mousey-" Hun said tauntingly as he sneered down at the little girl. Four pairs of eyes narrowed in anger from above the group as the girl sighed and set her things down.

"Wanna party with us mousey?" One dragon crooned while another laughed cruelly then said,

"We'll show you a good time."

Above them the four guardians nearly went slack jawed at the purple dragons innuendo's towards the girl. They couldn't be possibly suggesting what they thought they were right? After all the girl was just a kid!

The girl sighed again, this time more heavily as the dragons surrounded her. "What is this, the ninth time in three days? Can't you fella's just give up and go away?" The girl said in an almost pleading tone as Hun closed in on her.

"Not until we're satisfied- no."

"Oh well when you put it that way-" The girl said sarcastically as she looked to one side then another. Above her the guardians wondered what she was thinking when one of them muttered an oath as she took up a fighting stance.

This wasn't going to end well. Not for the kid. And not for the dragons.

They knew it was stupid for a normal person, let alone a kid, to fight a well trained crime orginazation. They had known and fought the dragons for many years- well since their teens, and knew that standing up to them was a daunting and more than a little bit frightening.

So they could only imagine what the kid was feeling at this moment while their leader signaled that once the fight started they would drop down from where they were and help the girl before any harm came to her.

The others nodded and gripped their weapons and waited for the perfect moment as the fight broke out below them. Everything from there unfolded as if in slow motion, Hun grabbed at the girl only to have her flip herself over his head and sweep his legs out from under him causing him to hit the ground like a ton of bricks.

They landed on the asphalt as several other dragons rushed the girl and automatically sprang into action and beat them back while the first guardian grasped the girl's wrist and pushed her back behind him as he deflected a weapon.

The clanging of metal and wood filled the alley along with several growls and yelps as several thuds were heard. The girl lightly placed her hands against the first guardian's back, feeling the slightly rough texture of something heavy under her finger tips and felt the male jerk his head around to look at her for a moment before turning back around.

There was a loud thud as a heavy body was slammed into one of the brick buildings. The guardian in front of her shouted, "Mikey!" His voice tinged in alarm as he brought his foot up and kicked the guy he'd been fighting, away from him.

He turned his head slightly and looked back at her then turned and put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her further into the shadows and hissed, "Stay here."

Unoaccustomed to being told what to do, much less by a sci-fi movie character in a large turtle suit, she waited for him to turn his back and watched him fight his way over to his fallen friend. Yet get stuck half the way there. Looking between the one who had hissed at her to stay and the fallen one, her eyes widened a bit when she saw that the fallen one was being dragged off.

Slowly at first then faster while the others were distracted. She started to take a step out of the shadows to go after him when something metal hit the brick beside her shoulder, startling a scream from her before she got a good look at what had hit the wall and felt herself pale.

Now she wasn't a person to give into fear easily. Never had been and never would be. Her grandfather had instilled such a sense of fearlessness and adventure in her when she had been growing up that she feared very few things now. Still this...

This was more than a little_ frightening_. In fact it was downright terrifying.

But that didn't mean that she wouldn't use it to her advantage if she could. Lifting a hand she pulled the shuriken out of the brick and hid it up one of her jacket sleeves then looked around and found some discarded weapons on the ground and nearly purred, _Jackpot, _as she grabbed them up and headed in the direction where the fallen guardian had been dragged.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Mikey came back to awareness with the uncomfortable sensation of his shell scraping across asphalte as he was dragged by two purple dragons. Still feeling groggy from slamming into the wall so hard that his teeth had rattled in his skull- He tried to lift an arm and swing at the ones dragging him away from his brothers and the safety that they provided, and found that he was so dizzy and weak that he couldn't even lift either of his arms. Much less make a fist.

_Damn. What's wrong with me?_ He wondered as he was suddenly dropped. His body hitting the pavement in a way that was both painful and somewhat familiar. He recalled several different wounds from his younger days that had left him in such a defenseless state. One had been poison.

But the purple dragons didn't deal in that. They would rather have their victims be able to feel _everything_ that was done to them so that they could hear their victims scream and beg. So only left some sort of internal injury.

A head wound, maybe? A skull fracture? Brain swelling?

_Shit._ He needed to get up and get back to his brothers before- "Well, well, what have we got here?" One dragon said in a taunting tone. Mikey closed his eyes for a second then opened them again as the second dragon said.

"A little turtle. Aw, poor thing. He's hurt."

"Then why let him suffer?" The first one said with a low rumbling laugh as Mikey tried to get up and was kicked in the side for his efforts. He gritted his teeth and tried to breathe but he was kicked again and again before he heard the familiar sound of a blade being drawn from it's sheath and felt an icey sliver of fear run down his spine as one of the dragons said.

"Turtle soup anyone?"

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leonardo sheathed his katana's as he walked over to the nice and tidy pile that his brothers had made out of the unconscious human's bodies, and nudged the one on top of the pile,_ hard_. "Is everyone alright?" He asked, his tone colored with concern.

"I'm fine." Donatello, the middle brother said as he stood up and tossed aside the wallets he'd collected while the second eldest looked around before growling.

"Where's Mikey?"

"I'd like to know where the girl went too." Leo said as he glanced over to the area where he'd left the girl and noted that she was gone now.

"She probably ran away screaming about monsters. Ya know, like most girlys do." The second eldest said with venom. His disdain for those too weak to stand and face them, coloring his tone. Leo and Don both sighed tiredly, both wanting to say something about how human's weren't meant to face them. Many of them were simply too scared of the unknown however the distant sound of clanging metal caught their attention.

The three exchanged looks, their expression's wary and concerned at the same time. Could Mikey still be fighting? Was he out numbered at this moment and waiting for help?

"Let's go see." Leo said more to himself than his brothers as they started towards the sounds of the conflict and took a few moments to blend into the darkness around them just in case they needed the element of surprise.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

What little bit of what Mikey saw played out like an old school kung fu movie. The girl had come out of the darkness and with a strength born of adrenaline and worry and fear, had kicked one guy across the alley and punched the other in the chest to drive them away from him.

Then grasped his wrist and slipped her other arm under his arm pit and dragged him back into a corner and quickly hid him behind some garbage cans after pressing a short sword into one of his hands and hissed at him to stay still and keep quiet. She had quickly ran one hand along the side of his face, shocking him to his very soul as he'd looked up at her and saw her smile at him.

There was such compassion and gentleness in her expression that Mikey had almost started crying, knowing very well that the dragons would tear through her like rabid animals in an effort to get to him.

But what killed him- what really, _really_ killed him was the fact that he could see that she knew it too and was unwilling to let them have their way even if it meant saving her own life.

He sat there shaking and feeling sick, his head throbbing painfully, his vision swimming every time he breathed or shifted to see if the girl was okay. He'd say this for her, whoever she was, she fought with a skill that was almost on par with his own and his brothers. Not allowing the dragons to take so much as a step closer to his location without knocking them back viciously.

_If I survive this- I will forever be in this girl's debt. _Mikey thought and nearly jumped out of his skin as one of the dragons managed to finally get past her while she was other wise occupied, and tried to thrust a katana blade through one of the garbage cans where he was hiding, level with his skull. _Tried_ being the operative word.

Mikey wasn't sure how it happened or why but before the blade could so much as get more than a hairsbreath from his face, he looked up just in time to see the girl standing there with her hand wrapped around the blade. Her blood ran down the gleaming silvery white metal, staining it with crimson as the dragon tried to jerk it free.

But he couldn't seem to get the girl to release the blade no matter how much he sawed it back and forth in her hand. She let him try three times to get it free before backhanding him so hard that Mikey could swear that he heard the sicking crack of a bone breaking before the guy crumpled to the ground. Leaving her with one more to deal with.

The dragon looked down at his unconscious friend and then back at her. "You're going to pay for that bitch."

"Not before you pay for calling me bitch." The girl said as she spun the katana blade in her hand until she had the grip in her wounded hand, her fingers closing around it drawing more of the scarlet liquid to the surface.

The dragon smirked at her behind his mask. Oh he was going to enjoy gutting this one. After all nothing was more pleasant than watching the fire go out of a spirited persons eyes.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leo and his brothers stood in the shadows just a few feet away from the two fighting, gaping in both shock and horror as the girl spun the blade and gripped the handle in her bloody hand.

They couldn't believe that she hadn't run away. Nor could they believe the amount of wounds she had gotten thus far. The scrapes and bruises and blood marring her pale skin, standing out in stark contrast even in the dark.

Her lip was busted, her knuckles bruised, at least two of her fingers on her other hand were broken if the way they stuck out, crooked and disjointed, was any indication at all.

Her jacket had been ripped in several places, she had a cut on her cheek another above one of her eyes, and what looked like several shallow stab wounds. Not enough to kill her, but Leo was certain that the damned things had to_ hurt_.

He was about to say something when he saw the dragon lunge. The girl parried his weapon and kicked him back but not before he managed to flip himself and throw a few shuriken at her. Two of which hit her. One in the chest, directly over her heart and the other embedded itself in the left side of her collar bone.

She looked down at the one in her chest as she staggered back into the garbage cans and accidentally knocked one over, causing Mikey to whimper and twitch slightly. Drawing the eyes of his brothers as the girl looked down at him. His green skin was paler now than it had been a few minutes ago and she could plainly see that his eyes were still unfocused even as he looked at the crimson stain spreading across her chest and collar bone.

"R-Run 'way..." He said in a weak pleading tone. She'd done enough for him. She was done. For her to push herself any further was suicide. She gave him a grim smile and his heart sank.

Damn. She was digging in her heels. Where the hell were his brothers when he needed them anyways? One of them could stop her. He reasoned tiredly as he fought off the swarming darkness. It had been trying to overwhelm him for the past few minutes now but he knew better than anyone that if he closed his eyes now, he would probably die.

She reached up and unceremoniously pulled the shuriken out of her collar bone and studied it in the darkness thinking, _Enough of this shit,_ and threw it back at the dragon hitting him in the neck with it. Severing his artery and sending a spray of blood spurting into the air as he hit the ground, twitching and thrashing around before going still.

The second he was down she dropped down to a croutching position next to the creature that she had protected and reached out with a bloody hand and grasped his wrist and checked for a pulse as the others came out, one of them whistling as he surveyed the damage. "Damn girl." The whistler said, watching as she visibly tensed for a moment as the leader asked gently in a soothing tone.

"Will you please put the weapon down?" She looked up at him and slowly pried her fingers from the grip of the katana and let it clatter to the ground at his feet and looked over at Mikey as Don checked him over.

"Is he going to be okay?" She asked in a breathless tone as her head started to feel fuzzy. They were different, she noted. Each of them wearing a different color mask and belt. Blue, red, purple, and orange. How odd that she hadn't noticed that before now.

The one in the purple mask looked up from his task as the one in blue knelt down in front of her and quickly looked her over before grasping her wrists and bringing her hands up so that he could see them better. "He should be fine after a while-" Blue said absently as he took stock of how many wounds needed stitching and bandaging. The wound on her one hand, her collar bone and chest were the worst off.

Everything else could be cleaned and bandaged but the chest wound and others needed sergical precision. "You however may need a hopital." Blue said as he let go of her wrists to dig into a pouch sewn onto his belt and pulled out some gauze and started to wrap her hand, trying to ignore the fact that the skin and tissue had been split all the way down to the bone.

Every time he wrapped another layer of bandages around her hand, he kept looking at her face worried that he might be hurting her worse than she already was. But she didn't react. Didn't hiss, swear, scream, cry- It was puzzling to him that she was showing no reaction at all really.

"Talk to me kid-" Blue said all of a sudden wanting to hear her voice again. "Tell me something about yourself."

"Why?" She asked curiously.

He looked at her, his gaze piercing. "How else will my clan know who to thank for saving our brother?"

"My name is Lily Ericson..." She said after a moment or two as he tied off the bandages around her hand. "And I'm feeling- sort of dizzy." She said as everything started to fade in and out. Blue slipped an arm around her shoulders and another under her legs and surged to his feet with her cradled carefully in his arms and barked out an order to the other two.

"Get Mikey home and take care of him!"

"What about you, fearless?"

"I need to take Lily to the hospital. I think she lost too much blood..."


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to the hospital took less than thirty minutes for Leo and though Lily was in no immidiate danger of bleeding to death, he was still worried. She'd lost more blood than he would have liked.

And had slipped into unconsciousness about ten minutes ago and was now a total dead weight in his arms as he sat croutched on top of a building across from the hospital trying to find an opening that would allow him to get her the help that she obviously needed.

He had been carefully considering his options for several minutes while anxiously shifting his gaze from the large medical facility across from him, then to Lily. She was paler than she had been a second ago, not only that but her body was shaking almost uncontrolably from the cold.

Or perhaps she was going into shock? He didn't know but he'd wasted enough time waiting.

She needed help _now_.

He stood up, holding her tightly against his plastron. Feeling her slight weight in his arms and started to step off of the roof when an ambulance pulled up and a couple of doctors and nurses rushed out to help unload it. This was it, the opening he'd been looking for.

He looked down at Lily again, her head was resting on his shoulder, her face was partially hidden by the drying blood and dark hair falling in her face.

"Hold on just a little bit longer, Lily." He said softly as he stepped off of the roof and let himself free fall until his feet connected with the ground. Then his years of training took hold. He stayed to the shadows as he made his way over to the ambulance then propped Lily up in a semi sitting position in the back of the vehicle. Then quickly went through her pockets to see if she had any medical insurance cards or something on her.

After all the last thing he wanted for her was to leave her in the care of people who would only let her suffer. He found a medical insurance card in the black leather wallet in her jacket pocket, along with a state ID.

And what looked like a broken medical bracelet tucked away in the back folds of the leather and frowned as he turned the metal over in his hands and read, _Lily Ericson; CIP. _

Leo's eyes widened in disbelief then a low growl escaped his throat. _Motherfucker- _His clan now owed not just any person a great debt, but a sick person. A _really_ sick person if the words on the broken bracelet were any indication at all. Just what was CIP anyways?

He wasn't sure how to react to this information. To be honest he would have liked to be pissed, but he figured that Lily must have had her reasons.

He laid the broken bracelet on top of the insurance card laying on her left upper leg and reached down and ripped the** L** from his belt and quickly slipped his mask into her uninjured hand along with the patch. Then reached out and framed her face in his hands and whispered to her softly in japanese.

_"I'll be watching you." _

She stirred slightly in his grasp and opened her eyes and looked at him, her eyes unfocused. And everything in him froze. God she had the most lovely eyes he'd ever seen before in his life.

The warm turqouise color holding him enthralled for a moment before he heard the doors to the building a few feet away open with a _'Visssshhh_' nearly causing him to jump out of his shell as he quickly stepped away from her, and moved back into the shadows where he could observe her being taken into the hospital without being seen.

Once he was sure that Lily was being taken care of, he turned and made his way to the nearest manhole and dropped down next to it so that he could pull it back just enough to squeeze himself through it.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Don stood in his lab under some fluorescent lights, looking at an X-ray of Mikey's head when Splinter walked in. "Donotello?" Don hummed and looked away from the X-ray in his hand to look over his shoulder at his master.

"Mikey has a linear fracture to his skull." Don said aloud, answering the question that his master was too worried or afraid to ask.

"Is that good or bad, my son?" Splinter asked cautiously. Not wanting to get his hopes up when he could wind up losing one of the young ones that he'd raised. Don looked back at him over his shoulder again and set the X-ray down on his desk.

"It's good. It means that as long as he doesn't develop complications, Mikey should be back up on his feet and annying the shell out of us in no time at all. Though he'll have to avoid more head wounds. Which means no more skateboarding, patrolling is out for a while- Oh yeah, and tell Raph that unless he wants to watch Mikey literally die in his arms, he's _not_ to smack him in the head. It could cause his brain to swell and bleed until it kills him."

Splinter nodded his head sagely as Don took a deep breath then asked, "Is Leo home yet? I want to know if the kid is alright."

Splinter looked at his son and shook his head slightly. The 'kid' his brainy son was speaking of must be the same one that Raphael had just finished telling him about a few moments ago. The one that had fought so hard to save his youngest son that now he and his whole clan in it's entirety now owed a life debt too. A life debt that he had no idea how they would repay.

"No. Leonardo is still gone." Splinter said absently as he wandered over to Mikey who was laying on the salvaged hospital bed that his brother had had brought in for emergencies, a thin blanket covering him to keep him comfortable. Mikey's normally soft emerald skin had taken on a sickly chalky green hue that had alarmed him greatly when his other two sons had carried him into their underground home almost an hour ago and started working on him.

But now he was just happy to see that his son was resting. The slight rise and fall of Mikey's chest assuring the old rat that his son was alive. He reached out and placed his clawed hand in Mikey's and smiled a little bit when his son's fingers curled around his own, gently gripping Splinters hand in his like he used too as a child.

He stood there for several minutes, reluctant to leave his son when he heard Raph call Leo's name in greeting and saw Don move towards the door of his lab to peek out and saw his son sigh and look back at him. "Leo's back." He said gently and Splinter nodded his head in understanding.

"You go. I will sit with Mikelangelo just a bit longer." Splinter said. Don nodded and said something about bringing tea for him when he came back then quickly ducked out the door to join Raph and Leo whom were already talking.

"So the kids okay?"

"I honestly can't answer that Raph. All I know is that she was taken into the hospital. What sort of treatment she gets there is questionable at best." Don raised an eye ridge at his eldest brother. _Questionable? The hospital is a better place for her than here. She'd have a higher risk of infection. _He thought. Though he was a mite curious about why Leo had said what he had said.

"Don could you do a computer search on an illness called CIP? I found a medical bracelet in Lily's wallet with her name on it." Don's eyes got so wide that the slightest pat on the back could have knocked his eyeballs right out of his skull he was so surprised. CIP. Wasn't that congenital insensitivity to pain? As in a person who felt no pain?

"Holy shit." He muttered as he started to turned around when Leo said,

"Oh and Don, I left Lily at North Ridge hospital...could you pull up her file so that we can see if she's being treated well there? I need to know her room number if they kept her, and how they treated her wounds. I also need you to use this-" Leo pulled out Lily's state ID. "To check for her current address. If she lives alone or not."

"You're not asking for much are you." Don said wryly.

"We owe her Donny." Leo pointed out in a growling tone. "The more we know about her, her illness and so on- the better we'll be able to repay her."

"Alright. Give me an hour or so." Don said as he took the state ID and turned to leave again when Leo said in a slightly hesitant tone.

"Hows Mikey?"

"He'll be good as new with some rest." Don said before asking.

"What happened to your mask? And the patch on your belt?"

"I...didn't have anything else to leave with her so I left those." Leo said, unable to stop the embarrassed flush that crept across his face.

"Well that's one way to tell someone 'welcome to the family'." Raph said with a smirk. Leo's blush deepened to a vivid purple as he lightly pushed Raph away from him so that he could go find their master and report to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Splinter was humming to Mikelangalo when his eldest son walked into Don's lab missing his mask and the **L** patch from his belt. "Master." Leo said respectfully as he dropped to his knees a few feet from his master and waited for Splinter to speak.

"Ah, so you have finally returned my son-" Splinter said in an amused voice as he looked his son over. Leonardo's shamrock green skin and his plasteron was covered in dried blood. Not exactly a surprising sight after the night his eldest had had. Though Splinter couldn't help but wonder how badly the young lady, that had saved Mikey, had been hurt. "Your brother has told me that Mikelangalo will be fine."

"Yes. I heard. I am glad." Leo said softly as he bowed.

"As am I. Tell me, how is the young one? Did you get her to the hospital in time?" Splinter said, trying not to let his curiosity get the best of him. Leo lifted his head a little bit and looked at him and hesitated for a moment before saying.

"I am unsure of how she is, master. She was struck in several key spots and lost a lot more blood than she should have. One shuriken was stuck in her chest...dangerously close to her heart. One of her hands looked as if it had been slit open all the way to the bone. And to make matters worse, master, I found something when I got her to the hospital that...both _upsets_ and _worries_ me greatly."

The tip of Splinters tail twitched slowly in aggitation. "Go on my son."

"I found a medical bracelet hidden in her wallet with both her name and the name of an illness on it. I don't understand the technical stuff like Donny does. So I've asked him to look up what we may need to know... For future reference."

"And did you leave the young lady something to show that she is now one of our clan?"

"I didn't have anything of value so I left my mask and belt patch. Later on I'll give her something else."

"I may have just the thing." Splinter said as he looked away from Mikey's sleeping figure. "I have a rare and valuable ceremonial green jade dagger and a mother of pearl inlay hair comb. Both are small enough to be carried by a woman. Or even hidden somewhere safe. Perhaps they will do."

Leo opened his mouth to say no. He didn't want to take his master's ceremonial dagger that had once belonged to his master, Himato Yoshi. Nor did he wish to take the hair comb that his sensei had made when he was younger.

Though he had no idea why his master had made the intricate piece of art.

"Whatever master chooses to do will be fine." Leo said solemnly as Don came walking in with Raph. Raph handed Splinter the tea that Don had promised him then joined his older brother while Don sat down in his seat in front of the souped-up computer system that Don used for a variety of things.

Don set aside the state ID and started typing, pulling up the information that Leo had asked for while the others all remained silent. "Lily Ericson... Here is everything that I got so far if anyone's interested in looking." Don said as he kicked back a little bit in his seat.

Leo and Raph looked at Splinter who merely waved them away with one of his hands while taking a sip of his drink before replacing his palm in Mikey's so that he wouldn't fret while he slept. Leaving his two remaining sons to go see what Don had found.

Leo looked up at the screen at the image of Lily and saw several different things. Several news paper articales, several pictures of her when she was younger. Laying in a hospital bed with an elderly man sitting beside her bed with a pained/haggard look on his face. Several of the news paper articales read- **Couple suspected of** **child abuse.**

While another said, **Child was shoved in front of a city bus by distraught mother and lived!** And below it was an image of a city bus, the front grill and glass stained with blood.

Another article read, **Grandfather is furious about the treatment of his sick grandchild!** Which had an image of the same elderly man from the earlier picture up in a younger man's face while a little girl with curly dark hair and turquoise eyes clutched his pants leg and cried.

_So this was Lily's life as a kid. Child abuse accusations. Attampts on her life. What the hell is wrong with people that they would target a mere child? _Leo wondered as Don dug up some new stuff, Lily's hospital records from North Ridge hospital and made a low growling sound.

"Looks like our new friend is in a room now in a medically induced coma." Don said as he looked back at his brothers. Even across the room Splinter managed to turn his head and look just a mite surprised by _that_ news.

"Why is she in a coma, Don?" Leo asked, his tone slightly alarmed. He knew that she had been hurt but he had hoped that she wouldn't be that hurt.

"Likely because of her medical condition. Putting her in a coma was probably what the doctors felt was best for her at the moment." Don replied as he quickly pulled up a side screen with information on Lily's medical condition.

"What's that?" Raph asked as he looked over the letters, CIP at the top of the page.

"It's Lily's medical condition spelled out for you in black and white. Read the whole article, Raph. Because her condition is one that usually claims the life of the person who has it early on. The fact that she's still alive now, means that she is aware of the severity of her illness and decided to go against what she was taught to prevent harm to herself in order to save Mikey."

Leo finished reading the medical article and looked at Don. "What's our next move?"

"You're asking me?" Don asked in a startled tone. Disbelief etched into his features. He had never in all his twenty six years heard Leo asking advice from anyone other than their master. So the fact that he bothered to ask his advice was..._unsettling_ to the brainiac.

Understandable. But nevertheless unsettling since he knew that Leo probably felt that his advice on how to proceed was for the best since Don possibly understood Lily's condition on a level that he and Mikey and Raph couldn't.

Don thought for a second then sighed. "Alright first lets go over the facts. Lily is severely ill and probably has little to no self preservation instinct. Couple her inability to feel pain with the possibility that she has never known fear- and she's pretty much the perfect prey for anyone intellegent enough to know the symptoms of her illness. On top of those things, she didn't seem surprised or even scared by us. In fact she treated us like we were just ordinary people. Possibly a learned behavior that was drilled into her head at a young age after being abused."

Leo did this impatient motion with his hands. "Come on, Don, get to the point."

"Oh. Sorry. But the long and short of things is basically that...we don't really need to sneak around. We could show up at her door in the dead of the night, weapons and all- And she would let us inside. No questions asked. No wariness..."

"Jesus, someone could walk up to her and kill her and it would never even register with her would it?" Raph asked in a dark tone as Leo's expression turned grim. Don shrugged his shoulders and looked away feeling somewhat nervous.

"Basically." He said and flinched slightly at the low threatening growls that escaped his brothers. _My, my, we haven't even known the girl for a day and they are already acting like she's our sister by blood. _Don thought in bemusement as Leo growled something about a shower then left the lab while Raph mentioned something about needing to work out.

Once they were both gone Don turned around to see Splinter standing just a few feet behind him looking amused. "I believe that things will become very interesting very soon." He said as his whiskers twitched. Don didn't say anything. But he did agree. Things around the lair were going to be very different once Lily Ericson was out of the hospital.


	4. Chapter 4

Five days passed before Don noticed any changes in Lily's care at the hospital.

And in that time Mikey had been in and out of consciousness, occasionally asking if the kid was okay. Talking to Splinter and the rest of them while Leo asked April and Casey to moniter Lily through visits while he, Raph and Don picked up the slack and patrolled each night.

April and Casey had done as Leo asked and made sure that if anything happened Leo or one of the others was notified immidiately.

All in all it had been a stressful time for the lot of them. Which was why the second Don noticed any changes in Lily's care, he nearly spat out his coffee before hacking the hospital computers to double check everything.

Then once he was done reached out and grabbed his shellcell and called Leo and Raph, both of whom were installing a security system that he had designed specifically for Lily's home so that they could check on her at will without stepping on any toes or taking away her privacy.

Apparently knowing that they owed a life debt to someone who had very little to no self preservation instinct at all had shaken the two hardened warriors greatly.

They had began to occupy their time arguing.

One would say that bringing Lily to the lair would be for the best. While the other had disagreed and merely said that she may hate them for uprooting her without permission and that a specifically designed security system would be for the best, since it would allow them to see her if she was in trouble, and help them know when they were needed.

Besides, human females liked their privacy.

Or so April had told them once after a particularly..._embarrassing_ incident where Mikey had found something called 'an adult toy' stuffed in the cushions of the red heads couch mere moments before she had screamed so loud that they had thought they were under attack.

She had forbad them to come to her apartment without calling at least an hour ahead of time afterwards. A rule that stuck even to this day. Which three out of the four had reasoned was understandable. It was even polite to call before coming over.

So Leo had won that particular argument then asked Don if he was up to the task of creating one. It wasn't easy, especially since he was given so little time to do it in but since he had already finished with Lily's custom made shellcell then he shrugged and took to his lab to get started.

Leo picked up his cell on the first ring and growled a rather unfriendly sounding, "What?"

Don blinked and debated on simply hanging up the phone but already knew that his older brother would tear him a new one for calling and hanging up simply because he was in a surely mood. Besides he had a report to give, dammit. Not only that but Raph would kill him if he didn't give it. Which was in itself incentive enough to continue.

He heard a finger tapping the mouth piece of Leo's cell and tried not to flinch as Leo growled again, "Hello? Hello? Don?"

"Yeah I'm here." Don said with a sigh.

"Is everything okay?" Leo asked, his tone less intimidating now.

"Everything is fine. Mikey's napping and Lily-"

"What about her? Is she okay? Those _damned_ doctors haven't done anything to hurt her have they?" Leo fairly snarled this time and Don had to take the cell away from his ear to look at it. _Geez. _He'd never heard his brother sound so protective and possessive all at once before. So natruallly he had no idea how to react to Leo's tone.

"Uh..."

"Talk to me Don or I'm handing the phone to Raph." Leo threatened without the slightest hint of remorse.

"Fine, fine. She's doing good. So good that the doctors have decided to ease her out of her coma so that she can get ready to come home."

If Don could have seen the look on his brother's face he wouldn't think this a good thing. As it was Leo's scowl caused several potted plants in the Lily's house to turn brown and wither. "Is it wise to let her come out of her coma so soon?" Leo spoke more to himself than Don, but it was his brother who answered him.

"It is considering that she didn't have any internal bleeding and such. Besides her movements and activities will be restricted to keep her from hurting herself further."

"That's only if she decides to listen Don."

"Well yeah, there is that." Don conceded.

"Which means that we'll be needed sooner than expected."

"It's a possibility."

"Well hell-" Leo muttered before thinking for a moment and saying. "I'm coming back to the lair to grab a nap."

Don stiffened a little bit. "What for?"

"I'm going to stay with Lily tonight and make sure that she does as she's told by the doctors."

"Alright. I'll inform master Splinter of your plan so that you won't have too." Leo sighed and looked around and saw Raph tangled in some wires hanging down from the wall where he was supposed to be putting up the security system. He thanked Don and then hung up to go help Raph get untangled so that he could finish his work before he left.


	5. Chapter 5

It was close to six pm that day when Raph finally returned home and woke Leo up from his nap with a breif update on Lily. Turns out the hot tempered turtle had not only finished putting up the security systems at Lily's place. But he had also dropped by the hospital and sat with the girl for a little while when she had still been groggy from the drugs in her blood stream.

He said that she had woken up several times and talked to him a little bit, asking him; What his name was? If his friend (Mikey) was okay? But then she had gone back to sleep again before he could answer her. He said that that had coninued through the day until about four thirty pm when she had finally woken up for good and tried to leave the hospital.

She'd managed to get almost to the front door before being dragged back to her room by several nurses where she had been severely chastised. Some of which Raph had overheard before he had left to run one more errand before he had come home.

Leo sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes then asked, "Did she stay put until she was released?"

"I dunno, man-" Raph said tiredly. "After I left the hospital I took a small detour to get her some food from the local grocery store before coming back here." Leo looked at his brother with a questioning look. As if to ask him why he bothered to go to the store for Lily when Raph said.

"Did you bother checking her fridge when we were there?"

"No-" Leo said in a curt tone. "Because I don't make a habit of going through things that do not belong to me unless it's neccesary. Why?"

"Man, all she had was some curdled milk and some butter. I went through her freezer, her cabinets... Hardley anything she had was eatable!"

"So you went and got some stuff for her." Leo said quietly, filling in the blanks in Raph's story. He didn't bother asking him where he'd gotten money to do such a thing, god knew that aside from Don- Raph had an E-bay account that allowed him to buy and sell things at will. Here lately he'd been helping April sell antique jewelry for a small commissions fee.

Which was fine since it gave Raph a way to buy things from the surface when he wanted which cut down on the amount of time he spent fighting with the rest of them. "How much did her new food cost?" Leo asked hesitantly, wondering how he was going to pay Raph back. After all scavenging at the dump rarely turned up anything really worth something.

"Not that much." Raph said dismissively before going on to list what he'd gotten. "I bought some fresh milk, some bread, cheese, some vegetables and fruits. I got her some granola bars with raspberry and cherry filling. Cookie dough. Some ginger ale to drink along with some lemonade and soda. Sour cream and chips. Some soups, meats, pastas, frozen pizza's- not that namby pamby shit but the good kind with everything on 'em. Some stuff to make chamomile tea and some flowers to replace the ones that I found withered. All in all she should be fine for the next month unless she goes on an eating binge."

Leo flinched a little bit as soon as Raph finished listing what he'd gotten and grabbed the replacement mask that he'd dug out of the small chest across the room from his bed before he'd gone to sleep the night he'd met Lily, and tied it into place.

"Figure out how much everything cost and I'll pay you back Raph-" Leo said as he got up off of his bed and grabbed his overnight bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I guess I better be going if I'm going to reach her place before she does."

Raph snorted at Leo's words as if he found them funny. "Alright, just keep in mind not to ambush her. The last thing we need is to be exposed because she kicked your shell, fearless."

Leo didn't say anything. It was best to merely ignore Raph as he brushed by him. Even if his brother _did_ have a point. The last thing Lily and his clan both needed was to be put through any more stress. He'd have to let Lily know of his presence before he showed himself to her, just to be on the safe side.

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Lily walked into her home feeling more tired than she had ever felt before as she kicked the door closed and then looked around her spacious living room. Everything looked okay, but she could tell that someone had been in her home. The metal plate hanging eye level on the far side of the room with the big bold letters **_SOS_**, was a dead give away.

Walking around she quickly did a breif inventory of her things to make sure nothing was missing and then came back to the metal plate and frowned at it as she crossed her arms over her chest. It didn't look like anything dangerous, but then neither did certain animals until they ripped off your hand. So she was going to have to do something about it.

Sighing because she didn't really feel up to being electrocuted. Especially so soon after being told that she was running a slight fever and escaping the hospital- she walked down the hall to the small linen closet and dug out her late grandfather's box of tools.

Then walked back to the living room and set the tools aside so that she could strip off her ruined jacket and tossed it onto her couch the ripped off the metal plate and blinked at the staggering number of colored wires running every which way.

_Holy shit. _She thought in astonishment. One wrong move from her and her home would go up in flames!

Shaking her head she gave the wires a wry smile and reached for a flat topped screwdriver. She was going to pop this little puppy off of her wall then toss it into the junk heap.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Don and Master Splinter were both visiting with Mikey while he ate something for lunch when something attached to Don's computer started beeping insistantly. Mikey paused with a bite of food half way to his mouth and looked around with a slight paranoid expression on his face as Don got up and walked over to his computer and typed in a few things and then looked at his screen and cringed as Raph came barreling into the room.

"Donny, what the shell is that beeping?"

"It's the alarm at Lily's. Someone is messing with it."

"Has anyone called Leo yet?" Raph asked as he moved to stand next to his brainy brother while Mikey cleared his throat behind them. The two turned to look at him questioningly as he all but growled as he picked up the shellcell that Don had laid on his bed earlier.

"Leave informing Leo to me."


	6. Chapter 6

Leo was on the rooftop across from Lily's home when his shellcell went off, nearly making him jump out of his skin. _What the hell? _Leo wondered as he slipped the cell out of it's place in his belt and looked at the number to make sure that it wasn't April or Casey. And saw that it was Don's cell number.

Frowning he answered. Which abated his nervousness about spending the night with Lily to some degree, that is until Mikey's voice came from the other end.

"Hey bro!"

"Mikey? What are you- Where's Don- Is everything okay?"

"Hmm. Oh! Everything is fine here bro."

"Then why are you calling?"

"Oh right, sorry dude-" Mikey said with a small nervous sounding laugh. "I was calling because Don said something about someone messing with her alarm." Leo looked back towards the small cabin style house and let out a frustrated growl. He could see the light in the living room was on. So someone must be there. The question on his mind at the moment was, 'Is it someone else? Or Lily herself?'

"Thanks for the heads up Mikey. I'll check it out."

"Be careful man. The purple dragons will be gunning for her now that she's taken out some of their people." Mikey warned, sounding unusually somber. Leo felt his lips curve up in a feral smile as he hung up the phone.

He was well aware of the risks. Especially now that Lily was one of them. But he'd be damned before he let someone other than family get anywhere near her, so he'd check out the house and see who was messing with the alarm and then he'd deal with it.

He stepped off of the side of the building he'd been standing on and let himself free fall about half way down to the ground before snagging the fire escape and in a brilliant display of acrobatics managed to land himself on the top of a passing car, with a loud **_Thunk_** no doubt startling the people within, before he jumped the six foot wall surrounding Lily's home and landed on her well kept lawn.

Right between a gardenia bush with irises and lilies on the other side of it and a rose bush with a tall, but young willow tree on the other side of it.

He huffed and looked around the yard for a second, noting that she had done very well in keeping the place up and taking care of the yard. Everything was so nice looking that he wondered if she had a photographic memory to help her keep track of things.

He'd bet that he'd find out if he bent a stem on one of her flowers, he mused as he got to his feet and set his sights on the house.

He could see someone moving around in the living room- well not someone but rather they're shadow moving about- grabbing his bag he slunk across the lawn to the house and peeked in through the window and blinked in disbelief.

Lily had beaten him home, it would seem. And not only that but she had hurt herself again. He could see it in the bloody bandages around her wounded hand, and in the way her fingertips bled.

The arm that should have been in it's sling, was out of it, and though it was of little use she still used it to hold screwdrivers and such. Making a smaller sound, this time angry. Leo felt his protective instincts take over as he turned and headed towards the front door around the corner of the house.

The door was unlocked, much to his dismay. Which was what caused his temper to nearly explode.

He had _never_, ever in his life come across someone who didn't have the common sense to lock their door at night. Not with the crime rate what it was. But then Lily was just a bit more _defenseless_ than he had thought she would be. After all he and his master and brothers had had this conversation before. Someone who didn't feel pain had no reason to fear anything. Not crime, not torture, not even the unknown-

It was _terrifying _to think about. Almost as terrifying as imagining Lily getting a knock on her door one night and being killed.

Opening the door Leo pushed it midway open and just stood there watching her while he tried to beat his temper back. She didn't need to be yelled at for something that was common sense to most. After all _her_ world was different. Her perceptions of _his_ world were different.

It was understandable that she would have some little..._quirks_. Something that set her apart from others. He just wished it wasn't the fact that she left her door unlocked at night and couldn't feel pain.

The second his temper was back under control he saw her get shocked by one of the wires, he decided that it was time to introduce himself. He knocked as she put her singed fingers to her mouth and she wheeled around so fast that she tripped and fell. A startled yelp escaping her as she hit the floor.

Leo cringed a little bit and hoped that she hadn't landed on her wounded arm as she peeked up at him over the arm of the couch, her lovely eyes wide as she stared at him. "Y-Your one of-"

"Yes. Now invite me in." Leo said with a small smile.

"Uh... Why?" Lily asked cautiously as she started to pull herself up. The blood from her wounded hand smearing on the cream colored fabric of her couch. Leo was slightly caught off guard by her question since everything he'd seen so far pointed to her having no sense about her safety and well being, the sense of her question had disarmed him.

"You have nothing to fear from me." Was all he could think of to say in response ot her question. She stared at him a little more then shrugged her shoulders.

"I know that since your the one who took me to the hopsital." She said as she used her bloody hand to push some of her hair back from her face. Smearing some of it onto her cheek this time. Leo made a _tsking_ sound and slowly shook his head. The silly girl was going to have blood everywhere before she even bothered to invite him in.

Leo grinned at her and almost said, 'You remember me.'

But instead said, "Well maybe it would help if I introduced myself. My name is Leonardo. I'm twenty three, my favorite color is blue. Though I am just a bit partial to green, silver, red and oddly enough some shades of purple. I like reading, visiting with friends, playing video games-"

"Fighting crime." Lily supplied helpfully.

"I don't like doing that. It's merely a necessity." Leo said with a shrug of his shoulders as he waited for her to say something else. Lily didn't say anything else for a moment, she merely looked him over with a curious expression before sighing and waving at him to come in. Leo smiled, somewhat impressed with her screening process. Though not terribly since she could have asked him for more information.

Still the fact that she had waited to invite him in until she knew something about him, meant something. He stepped into the house and dropped his over night bag just in the doorway, out of the way and quietly closed the door behind him.

"Do you have bandages?" He asked after a heart beat or two of silence. Lily nodded, wondering if he was hurt and merely wanting someplace to lay low for a little bit but knew that the fact that he had come right to her door had _some_ significance. But what that significance was she had no idea as she watched him prowl around her living room like he was expecting trouble or something before asking.

"Where do you keep the bandages?"

"I-In the bathroom."

"Will you sit down and be good while I go get them?" He asked as he stopped prowling around to stand right in front of her. She tipped her head back and looked up at him curiously, not the least bit bothered by the fact that he'd just more or less talked to her as if she were a child. Nor was she bothered by the fact that he had a little over two feet on her in size.

"But the thingy-" She said lamely as she pointed to the security system that he and his brothers had installed.

"Forget about it and sit down."

"B-But I-" Leo sighed and quickly bent down and picked her up, startling another yelp from her as they suddenly wound up face to face. Leo blinked at her as her face flushed. Up close her eyes looked far too bright, the normally soft blush of her skin was a deeper color.

Leo narrowed his eyes and reached up with one hand and cupped her cheek, feeling the unnatrual warmth of her skin under her palm. "Are you running a fever?"

"Just a little one." Lily said without thinking and Leo growled something in a language that she didn't understand and more or less shifted her in his grasp so that she was tossed over his shoulder and headed back towards the bedroom.

"H-Hey! What are you doing?" She shrieked as she squirmed in his grasp, trying to escape.

"I'm going to wrap your wounds with fresh bandages then put you to bed where you belong." Leo said in a snappish tone that brooked no argument.


	7. Chapter 7

He was angry. Or perhaps it was irritation she was picking up on, either way Lily felt more than a little bit uncomfortable when she found herself straddling the overly large turtle/man's lap while he slowly unwrapped the bandages around her hand and wrist.

"U-Umm... Mr. Leonardo, is this necessary?" She started to say when he lifted his head a little bit to give her a dark look that had her abruptly shutting her mouth.

"Lose the Mister, Lily. You make me feel like I should be a hundred when you call me that. And yes, this is absolutely necessary. You're feverish and bleeding. And I obviously can't trust you to simply sit in one place while I attend to your wounds." He said in a gentle tone that surprised even himself as he finished pulling the rest of the bloody bandages away.

And made a hissing sound as his breath escaped from between his teeth as he caught sight of her hand. It had been stitched closed with thirty something very fine looking stitches, some of which had been ripped open when she had been using her hand.

The puckered skin was raw and angry looking, seeping blood and Leo wasn't totally sure but he could swear that one small part of the wound looked like it was getting infected.

_Merde! _Did the doctors clean her wound at all? He wondered in vexation as he tossed the bloody bandages into the waste basket and then grabbed the rubbing alcohol and cotton balls that he'd also grabbed from the bathroom, just in case. And twisted the knob off of the top of the alcohol bottle then picked up a cotton ball and soaked it.

"Hold still so that I can clean your hand." He said in a low rumbling tone as he set the alcohol bottle back down on the bedside table and grasped her arm and lightly ran the wet cotton ball along the wound.

Lily jerked at the faint contact of the cotton ball running along her skin but otherwise didn't react as he carefully cleaned the wound then picked up the gauze bandages laying on the bed next to his leg and ripped open the package and started to re wrap her hand. "Once I'm done with this, I'll check your fever then you can go to sleep." He said.

"Uh... Not to be ungrateful or anything, but why are you so concerned with my well being?" Lily asked curiously, the _'whys_' of her situation finally managing to form on the tip of her tongue. Leo glanced at her as he finished re wrapping her hand and wondered what to tell her without having her freak out on him. He thought for a moment then tied off the bandages and then gripped her hips and lifted her.

God she was so light that he felt as if he was picking up a feather. Did she even eat when she got the chance? He wondered as he started grabbing up things and throwing away wrapers. Once all of that was done he walked back into her bedroom and looked at her almost nervously before blurting out. "Do you know what a life debt is?"

"Ugh..."

"So that's a no then?"

"Well, technically I know the basis for one and how it's supposed to go."

"Well, allow me to fill in the blanks-" Leo said as he sat down on the edge of her bed and folded his hands neatly in his lap. "My family and I are ninja. Not what you see on TV or movies but honest to god ninja's. And a lifedebt to us means a life of protection and servitude (within reason) that is. The first part is introducing you to our life style. This is done by giving you a rare but valuble object that only our clan will recognise."

"Then over time we slowly bring you in as a part of our clan as a sibling or cousin. After that, one of us will be assigned to be with you twenty four/seven to keep you from coming to harm. To do this we usually would have to have you leave your home, but there are other ways if leaving your home to live with us is considered unacceptable-" Leo was about to go on when Lily held up her hands and motioned for him to stop.

He did so only because he was curious about what she might ask or say. "Okay so let me get this straight. I saved one of you-"

"My younger brother." Leo supplied helpfully.

"And now you owe me a lifedebt that means being a part of my life from now until-"

"_Death_, Lily. We take our lifedebts seriously and since our brother cannot be replaced, then we figured that we should treat you in the same fashion as a rare and precious gift. And make it so that you are irreplacable to us."

"By making me a part of your family."

"Yes." Leo said in a slightly nervous manner, wondering what was going through her mind as she opened and closed her mouth several times and seemed to be grappling for something to say. He'd left out a few key factors of information, feeling that he needed to get to know her character better before saying that if she didn't wish to be a part of his clan through adoption then there was one other way.

The choice however was ultimately hers.

"Do you have any further questions?" Leo asked after a moment or so after she had started to look around the room as if it fascinated her. Apparently she either couldn't think of anything to say, or she simply wouldn't say anything. Either way he still needed to check her fever and put her to bed so that she could rest.

She looked back at him and shook her head no and nearly jumped out of her skin when he reached out and framed her face in his big hands. She blinked at him and flushed a little bit until her soft rose colored face was a more vivid shade of pink. "How high was your fever when you left the hospital?"

"It was about one hundred and one."

"Do you have any way to check it now?" He asked curiously, thinking that her skin felt far too warm to just be one hundred and one degrees.

"There's a thermometer in the table next to you."

"Glass?" He asked with a small frown.

"Digital."

"Alright, lay back and let me check your temp-" Leo said gently as he released her and let her move away from him a little bit while he dug out the digital thermometer. "Okay, open wide and let me take your temp." He said as he pulled the thermometer out of it's plastic casing and turned it on and then held it out to her.

"Just one quick thing before you check my temp."

"Okay."

"How did you know my name? I mean you've used it several times before but-"

"What's that? You want me to hurry things up and let you rest. My god you must be delirious!" Leo said in mock innocence as he shoved the thermometer into her mouth, chuckling softly when she flailed around for a second, then walked away only to come back a second or so later with some Asprin in one hand and some water in the other as the thing beeped.

Lily took it out of her mouth and looked at it and scowled. "How high is your temp?" Leo asked as he set the cup of water on the bedside table, well within reach. Lily turned off the thermometer and stuffed it under her pillow and tried not to look nervous.

"It's ninty nine degrees even." She lied and Leo chuckled at her vain efforts. Honestly did she think he couldn't tell that she was lying? He had three younger brothers and a mean tempered father that hated being nursed when ill. He'd been through this nursing thing more than once and knew the signs of a bad patient.

"Uh-huh..." Leo said as he sat down then reached under her pillow, earning a few growls from her as he groped around for the thermometer before pulling it out and turning it on to check and see what her real temp was. It had spiked to one hundred and two.

Turning it back off again he handed her the asprin and the water and ordered her to take them or else.

Lily looked like she would have liked to argue, but upon hearing the veiled threat in his voice took the pills and the water then sat back with a huff once she was done. Leo took the empty glass from her limp fingers and set it back on the bedside table then tapped her on the tip of her little nose. "Nice try, but you didn't cover your trail enough. Now lay down and try to get some sleep."

"I'm not tired." Lily grumbled, earning a sly grin from Leo.

"You will be. Just give it a few minutes." He said almost smugly, causing her to sit up straighter and look at him suspiciously.

"What did you do?" She asked in a slightly panicked tone that made Leo give her a calculating look. She sounded scared. But that was impossible since she couldn't feel pain or fear. Wasn't it?

She reached out to put her hands against his forearm and he caught them in his, his grip gentle. "Calm down, Lily. I just pulled a quick one on you to help you sleep." He said softly. She opened her mouth to ask him specifically what he'd given her but couldn't seem to find the words as everything started to spin.

"O-Oh..." She muttered as she suddenly found herself laying face down over his arm. She didn't remember anything after that.


	8. Chapter 8

_"O-Oh..." She muttered as she suddenly found herself laying face down over his arm._

_She didn't remember anything after that._

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

The second that Lily slumped forward, Leo grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from winding up face down across his lap and turned her over so that he could make sure that she was really out. She was. And Leo wondered just what was put in the Tylenol PM's he'd given her that knocked people out so easily.

He made a mental note to go read what was on the back of the Tylenol box as he pulled the covers back on the bed then scooped Lily up and turned so that he could put her under the covers. Once he had her where he wanted her, he sighed and closed his eyes and quickly slipped off her shoes socks and then her pants since he doubted that she would sleep comfortably with them on.

After all she wasn't April. April could sleep in just about anything.

But then again he felt rather embarrassed to be removing her clothes- even though it was just _one_ pair of pants- without her permission. He'd have to be sure to let her slap him or something when she woke up. If she was feeling up to it, that is.

He slipped her jeans down her long slender legs and frowned as he recalled bits and pieces of his sexual education, which had been given to him and his brothers by a hooker that April had managed to find at Splinters request. He and his brothers had been taught various things about giving and receiving pleasure, as well as figuring out what kinks worked to get them off.

Leo liked tying up his partner and having her totally at his mercy.

Where as Raph was into hardcore bondage and could make his partner cum screaming for more. Don and Mikey were into petting and cuddling. Things that suited their gentler personalities. And yet-

Yet... Why was he getting the sudden impulse to nip at Lily's inner thigh? To run his hands along the smoothness of her legs and see for himself just how long her legs were. _Calm yourself Leonardo. Your getting excited over nothing more than the memory of pleasure that your body has come to crave. Lily is off limits unless she states otherwise. _Leo reasoned with himself as he dropped her pants onto the floor and quickly tucked her in and then left the room.

Putting as much distance as possible between himself and temptation without leaving the house.

He wound up in the living room where he fixed the damage done to the security alarm then popped the metal plate back on it and went to go fix himself something to eat. He decided on a ham and cheese sandwhich. But wound up fixing some soup for Lily as well, while mulling over _why _he had felt the urge to nip at her skin and run his hands along her legs.

It couldn't be that he was attracted to her.

For starters she was far too small and young for him to even think of being attracted to her. _Right? _Not only that but if he was attracted to her he would forever be consciously aware of the fact that he could tear her apart with his bare hands. Which was an unpleasant thought to dwell on.

He sat down on the couch and looked around the livingroom. Giving it a more critical once over.

Noticing the colors, the set up of the furnitur. Lily had a few pictures of herself and an elderly man sitting on one of the top shelves where she kept her movies. But she had no pictures of friends her age, nothing to show that she went to school. Hell, she didn't even have knick nacks!

Everything pointed to her living alone yet she seemed no older than a child.

_Well this could be problematic. _He thought as he took a bite of his sandwhich then set it down on the small flowered plate he was using to keep from getting crumbs everywhere. If she lived alone, who checked in on her? A neighbor? A family memeber perhaps?

He got up and started moving around a little bit, his anxiety showing in his pacing back and forth across the room. He paced for what seemed like forever, but was actually three hours before throwing his hands in the air, quickly finishing what was left of his half eaten sandwhich. Then put his dishes on the counter so that he could wash them in a little bit after he went and checked on Lily.

He slipped into her room with all the stealth of Mikey after he'd had his first drink of booze. It wasn't that he was clumsy. Well not normally anyways, but for some reason going back into her room unsettled him a bit. Made him feel more nervous than he'd ever felt before in his life. Which was probably why he seemed to be tripping over his own feet on his way into the room.

Luckily he hadn't knocked anything over. Unluckily however he had a very nice view of Lily laying partially curled up on the bed, her legs and bottom sticking out from under the blanket, her dark hair damp with sweat, sticking to her forehead and cheeks. And while this did concern him a bit he found himself partially distracted by the red and black satin and lace panties peeking out from under the hem of her shirt.

_Red and black lace. Seriously? _He thought in disbelief. He almost expected to see white cotton panties with little strawberries on them not the sexy grown up stuff she was wearing now. _Note to self- destroy any sexy panties you find after checking on her, then gouge out your eyes for looking in the first place._


	9. Chapter 9

_Note to self- destroy any sexy panties you find after checking on her, then gouge out your eyes for looking in the first place._

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Leo spent most of his night alternating between trying to get to know Lily better through her things, movies, books and such. And finally got lucky enough to find a Jr. High school album which he took some time to flip through in an effort to get a good feel for Lily through it.

What he found was unexpected. Most of the album had no known pictures of her, however there were a few where a small group of cheerleaders had this several kids, all young girls by the hair in front of them with the words, **LOSER**, **FREAK**, and **BITCH**, written in red lipstick across their foreheads.

One of the girls in the photo being held by her hair was Lily. He recognised her by her facial features.

And written in vivid blood red letters across her forehead was the word** FREAK**. After that most of the photos showed her being ignored or bullied. And by the time he was done there was such a furious feeling welling up in his chest, imaging her going through all of that. Possibly by herself, without even _one_ friend to talk too.

But now he had a better grasp or understanding of _why_ she had put her life in danger for his brother. Who else could understand them but a freak of a different kind?

And that was what Lily thought of herself. She'd had it drilled into her head ever since she was young. Had never had anyone around to refute her opinion of herself or what she was. That was probably why she didn't scream and overreact to them like others did.

He snapped the book shut and stuffed it back in it's place and pulled out his shellcell, intending to ask Don to see if he could look up some addresses and names from the album so that they would know where Lily's former bullies lived but instead decided to simply check the time.

It was best not to dredge up old ghosts. Especially since he doubted Lily would be able to handle them as she was today. He flicked open his cell and blinked at the time. It was seven thirty am, time to get ready to leave.

He got up from his resting place on the living room floor to go wash his dishes, then pulled out the soup that he'd made earlier that night for Lily and heated it up in the microwave and set it aside on a big plate while he retrieved a spoon and made her a cup of chamomile tea with honey in it and then grabbed a small plastic bag from under the kitchen sink and picked up the dishes and headed back to the bedroom.

He set the tea and soup on the bedside table then quickly went to work on what had most disturbed him that night. Getting rid of all those sexy panties. He went through several drawers, the dirty clothes hamper, the washer and dryer and finally managed to stuff all of the frilly lacy panties in the plastic bag before closing the dresser drawer.

And picking up the package of cotton panties that he'd found when he'd been going through her stuff earlier and then set the packet on top of the dresser in plain sight then went into the bathroom and came back out with some Tylenol tablets, and then looked for a piece of paper and a pen so that he could leave her a note telling her that someone would be by to stay with her again tonight.

He quickly jotted down the note he'd been wanting to leave and set it down on the plate next to the soup then quickly did one more thing before leaving.

He went through his overnight bag and found the jade knife and set it in the pillow next to her head then brushed back some of her dark hair with his finger tips then slipped out of the room so that he could leave.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lily stirred slightly from her sleep and opened and closed her eyes several times before becoming fully aware of the fact that it was day. She could see the reddish orange of the early morning light hitting her far wall. Not only that but she could smell something wonderful. So wonderful that her mouth started watering more and more with every breath she took.

Turning over onto her back she tried to recall last nights events and for a few minutes drew a blank. She didn't recall anything about the wired mess attached to her livingroom wall, or the turtle/man that had come to her place to stay with her-

She didn't remember anything at all. Which was odd considering that she usually remembered _something_.

She lay there for several minutes just staring at the ceiling before looking towards the sorce fo the wonderful smell and saw a plate, bowl and cup sitting there with a piece of paper and frowned as she made out some of the words.

_Lily, _

_Eat the soup. _

_Drink the tea, take the pills and rest a little more. _

_And someone will be by a little later on tonight to sit with you._

_Leo_

Lily sat there staring at the note and trying to recall who the hell Leo was and why he had been in her house. _Had it all been a dream? _She wondered as she stared at the note a little longer before huffing. What was she? Three? She could take care of herself dammit! And right now she wanted to eat something then grab a shower.

(*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leo was sound asleep back in his bedroom when Raph opened the door to ask him how things went. He looked his snoring brother over then made an irritated sound and was about to leave the room when he saw a plastic Wal-Mart bag laying on the floor just inside the door and curiously poked at it with one of his feet.

Causing the knot tying the top together, to come apart allowing him to see several frilly lacy things that made him even more curious. Bending down he picked up one of the frilly lacy things and held it up so that he could see it and paled a little bit under his green skin and called out as softly as he could. "Ugh? Master?" _Why did Leo have women's panties in his possession? And how long had this shit been going on? _


	10. Chapter 10

Splinter studied the pair of panties that his son Raphael had pilfered from Leonardo's room and couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Leo had taken his overprotective nature just a wee bit too far with the human girl they owed. Though the frilly lacy panties in his hand were meant to be enticing (and were even to someone as old as he) yet they looked as if they were made to fit a child.

Which had him wondering how old the young lady was.

However when he asked Donatello, the purple masked turtle had immidiately gone a little bit pale then marched himself right into his lab and closed himself and Mikey in it. Then barrocaded the doors and started laughing like a lunitic.

Splinter's ears had flattened back against his head by this point.

Okay, so it seemed that now he needed to have a much needed conversation with both Leonardo _and_ Donatello. Not to mention the one he needed to have with Raphael about pilfering things that didn't belong to him.

Splinter sighed and sat back, waiting for Leonardo's alarm to go off so that they could talk and found his eyes once again drawn to the frilly lacy panties. _What the devil_ _had we gotten themselves into?_ He wondered as he heard the distant beeping and knew that soon his son would be awake.

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lily had eaten the soup, but hadn't taken the pills. Some part of her mind recalling the incident from the night before and was reluctant to bother taking pills again. At least unless she could get them for herself.

However that wasn't even the best part of her weird, _weird_ day.

Some might have thought that the best part of her day may have been when she found all of her specially made, lolita type panties, gone. Replaced by cotton panties with little flowers, teddy bears, and strwberries. And thought, _What the fuck? _What was she a child? She hadn't been a child in over fourteen years.

Not since a man named Bishop had paid her a visit and paid her parents for the luxury of experimenting on her. He'd promised that his experiments would be humane. That she would feel nothing because of her illness. But her illness had been the first thing he'd temporarily corrected. After that everything had gone down hill.

He'd injected her with things. Drilled holes in her bones and skull. Took tissue samples. Blood samples. He'd injected semen into her stomach and gotten her pregnant then forced her to miscarry.

She had resigned herself to live out her days there- an experiment, thinking that no one on the outside had noticed her disappearance or cared. But her grandfather had. He had noticed and despite being over fifty and retired, had pulled rank on Bishop and kicked up a fuss so big that even the president hadn't been unable to ignore it.

She had been released into the care of her parents, whom had been paid by Bishop to 'get rid' of her.

And after the first failed attempt on her life, and a long, _long_ dragged out court battle for custody of her, he had taken the two for a little drive and killed them both. Saying that it was for the best that they died now instead of later since he himself wouldn't live forever.

He'd taught her to lay low after her release from Bishops lab. Mainly because what the man had done had altered her illness somewhat. For the most part she was still immune to pain. In fact she felt nothing but a pleasant tingle whenever she was hurt. But sometimes she would also feel a throbbing sensation where she was wounded.

The throbbing sensation was meant to be a warning of sorts, that she- no, that her body couldn't take much more- but she often ignored it. She thought of it as a bother and would rather keep going until she couldn't think, stand, or crawl anymore.

This was how her grandfather had told her she would die. But he had never really understood that her's was a miserable existance anyways. What did she have to look forward too aside from being shunned and lonely her whole life?

She couldn't have children. Getting and keeping a pet was an impossible task since most of them starved to death before she could remember to feed them. Thank god she'd only gotten gold fish so far. Since she doubted she would have been able to handle burying a bunny, kitten, or puppy.

Shaking her head she pushed the unpleasant memories aside and sighed and picked up the packet of panties laying on her dresser and grabbed a shirt and a pair of jeans and headed for the bathroom. She needed to get herself cleaned up so that she could run some errands.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Donatello sat in his lab in front of his computer, while Mikey tested his legs out to see if he could finally get permission to get up and move around again, his mind going over Splinter's earlier question. How old was Lily Ericson?

Of course Don already knew that she was in her twenties. But because they knew so little about her he felt it might be a good idea to dig a little bit deeper and see what he could find.

He started typing out various things to search on when he heard a yelp and a thud and growled and slowly turned in his chair to look at his younger brother who was sprawled out on the floor face down. Rolling his shoulders in irritation Don said, "Mikey-"

"Yth Dawn."

"You do realise that if you hit your head again so soon that you _will_ die." Don said calmly. His tone at odds with the seething rage building in his chest. If not for the fact that everyone expected him to be the calm tempered one, he would have strangled Mikey long ago.

"Yth. I gow."

"Fantastic. Bow pick yourself up and get back into bed before I break your legs." Don said cheerfully. Mikey pushed himself upright a little bit and glared at him.

"And how would you explain my newly broken legs to Splinter?" Mikey growled out the question, his temper rising.

Don gave him a wide eyed look and suddenly said, "Oh no! Mikey get back into bed before you-" Don slammed one hand down on his computer desk as he let out a distraught almost girly scream then continued on. "Oh my god! Mikey! Stay still-" There was another series of loud bangs that echoed throughout the room and finally Don ended his act. And sat back down with a huff with his arms and legs crossed and looked at Mikey, whom was gaping at him in shock, like he was a bug he'd just love to step on and then growled, "Now stop with the chatty cathy shit and get your ass back into bed."

"You- How can- What the fuck-" Mikey sputtered as Don continued to glare at him before Mikey managed to snarl, "You're such a bastard!"

Don gave him an evil looking smirk and shrugged his shoulders. Like he cared what his brother thought of him. After all it was only because he refused to allow him out of bed before his time that his brother would even survive his injuries.

So to hell with playing nice.

His brother's health was more important.


	11. Chapter 11

But no- the weirdest part of her day- the one that wasn't mentioned before.

Happened to take place after her shower and when she had hit the streets to go run her errands. First on her list was grocery shopping, which added up to her getting some bread, sandwhich meats, cheeses and milk. That was it. Nothing else.

Then after that she went to go clothes shopping, managing to stop by her favorite store to get a goth looking lavender and black striped jacket with gloves and leggings. Then after buying them she left the store and was on her way home, unaware that the temperature had dropped to close to thirty as the hours wore on. It had to be close to six in the evening.

Or maybe it felt that way because she had woken up feeling so groggy and sluggish around one in the afternoon. To be honest she had little concept of time. So she had no real idea of _what_ time it was when she started for home.

All she knew was that it was getting dark and it was time to head home to settle in for the night.

(**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leonardo's talk with Splinter had gone over about as well as a lead balloon for two reasons.

Splinter felt that Leo'd taken his overprotective nature too far.

And because Leo had felt his privacy had been invaded even though it hadn't. Not only that but he had been upset with his master for even touching something of Lily's. After all the small articles of clothing carried her scent on them from the place where her scent was the strongest.

Because of them, he had already figured out what she smelled like when she was in season. The sweet scent of plums, vanilla and honey mixed together was perhaps the closest he could come to describing her scent.

And to keep his master or brothers from finding the few pieces with that scent on them he'd stuffed them all in his pillowcase before going off and punching Raph in the mouth for daring to touch them. _Period_.

Then grabbed his overnight bag and headed for the surface to spend another restless night pacing back and forth. All in all it took him forty five minutes to get from the lair to Lilys place and once there he quietly let himself in thinking that she may still be resting from her fever. However upon going back to her room to check on her, he found the bed empty.

Curious about where she might be, he did a walk through her home. Checking every room before pulling out his cell and trying to see if he could track her through hers. However he'd forgotten to give it to her last night so that proved to be a pointless endeavor.

He did a quick second sweep of the house just to make sure he hadn't missed anything, and found the piece of paper that he'd written his note on earlier that morning before he had left, and turned it over to reveal a small note written in clear, obvious hand writing.

_Um to mister green guy, _

_Wasn't completely sure if I was high or what. But just in case I didn't hallucinate you, I only have one thing to say-_

_**Stop bossing me around**._

_Lily _

Leo snorted and shook his head. Like that was ever going to happen. She was far too defenseless. Speaking of...where the hell was she? She should have taken the pills- He looked down and hung his head as he sighed.

She hadn't taken them. She should have. But she hadn't.

And nothing in the note indicated where she was going or how long she was going to be gone... _Christ!_ Had she left as soon as she woke up? She could be anywhere! In any state.

He felt an icy sliver of fear curl itself around his heart and quickly ran through the house to the front door and slipped out, leaving his over night bag laying on the floor just inside the door.

He needed to track her down before anything happened to her. Luckily he had made it no less than half a block away from her home before he caught sight of her. She looked a little flushed in the cold, her sweater offering little comfort against the coolness of the air, and in her hands she was carrying several bags. A few with food and some with...well, he had no idea what was in them but all of them were light.

So maybe she wouldn't collapse from her fever. Maybe.

Jumping down into an alley Leo peered around the corner of a building and waited for Lily to get to the point where she was about to pass by him when he reached out and caught her around the waist while covering her mouth with his other hand and jerking her into the inky darkness. Likely scaring ten years off of her life in that moment if the way she thrashed around was any indication at all.

But he didn't really care.

He fully intended to take her home and make sure that she rested even if he had to tie her to her damned bed to do it.

"Oh my, _utsukushii yuri_, you are in so much trouble for not resting today." He said in a low rumbling tone, unaware that he'd just used the japanese words for 'beautiful lily' to speak to her as he tightened his arm around her middle.

It didn't seem to bother Lily though, she still thrashed around in his grip. Twisting her body this way and that until he felt she would have bruises if he didn't release her. Yet though he knew this, he was reluctant to let her go.

Some part of his mind couldn't help thinking how good-no, how right- she felt in his arms.

He slowly removed his hand from her mouth, knowing that it was likely bruised and bloody after her futile struggle against him. "No screaming." He ordered as he removed his hand from her mouth, taking his time to feel the silken texture of her lips against the pad of his fingers.

God she had such soft lips.

Lily took several deep breaths but remained silent as Leo shifted the hand he'd had over her mouth to brush back some of her dark hair before saying in a rough tone, "You really have no sense do you? When someone grabs you off of the street; you scream. Even if they hit or threaten you. Scream for all your worth and draw some attention to yourself and what's being done."

She trembled slightly as his breath fanned across her cheek.

Leo felt her body tremble and smirked in the darkness. He supossed that he'd played his 'devil' part well enough to frighten some sense into her. Now it was time to let her go so that she could run home where he would meet her. "When I let you go...I want you to run home. Forget anything and everything else and just run. I'll be watching-" He said in a softer tone as he abruptly let her go and then disappeared.

Quickly scaling the wall to the building behind him, he made his way to the roof where the first thing he did was peek over to see if Lily had done as he'd ordered and scowled when he saw her sink to the ground and sit there for several minutes looking very fragile and scared.


	12. Chapter 12

_A_ _mugger._ Lily thought in stunned disbelief as she slipped through the gate leading to her yard.

Of all the things to happen to her, she was frigging mugged! And by a weird fellow too. He hadn't taken anything. Or raped her. Thank god. No. All he did was give her tips on how to draw attention to herself in a bad situation and breathe on her neck and then tell her to run away.

Still... That had been an odd encounter for her. And had drained what little energy she had left.

She kicked the small iron gate closed behind her, the bags from her trip out slipping form her numb fingers as she then took several steps before her legs gave out on her and she fell- Right into the arms of- the turtle man that she had thought wasn't real. Only tonight he was wearing red.

"Wh-What the hell?" She sputtered as he wrapped his arms around her and then ran them along her back in a rubbing motion before speaking.

This time his tone was heavy with a brooklyn accent. His voice, deep and commanding and altogether irritated sounding to her ears, "W'ere you been?"

She opened her mouth to tell him that where she had been was none of his damn business when she felt the air stir behind her and saw 'red' look up before saying, "Yo Leo."

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leonardo had been following Lily at a discreet distance for a while.

Concerned that he may have done something horribly wrong to her when he'd scared her. But in his defense, he wanted her to be more _aware_ of the dangers around her and not disappear into thin air when she was obviously ill.

He had just reached the other side of the wall fencing off her yard when he saw her start to collapse and silently swore as he jumped it and ran to reach her.

He hadn't expected Raph to show up out of the blue and catch her. Nor had he expected the sudden sliver of jealousy that curled itself around his heart. "Yo Leo." Raph greeted him as soon as he slipped from the shadows, appearing behind Lily. Facing his brother.

"What are you doing here Raph?" Leonardo asked, unable to keep the bite from his tone as he stared at his brother and tried to control the sudden urge to reach out and strangle Raph for laying his hands on _his_- _No!_ He couldn't think like that.

He quickly dismissed the thoughts swirling in his head while trying to keep from giving himself a headache as he reached out and snatched Lily from Raph. Ignoring the wide eyed, confused looks she was giving them as she continued to sputter and look back and forth between them. "I came to check on you both. But you weren't here."

"Lily decided to go out."

"Ah. Figured from the bags in her hands."

Leo made a noncommittal sound and scooped Lily up and was a little startled when she wrapped her arms around his neck and more or less buried her face against his shoulder muttering to herself as Leo said, "Look Raph can we talk inside? She still has a fever-" He could tell by the feel of her skin against his own. He felt as if he'd been scalded.

Raph gave him a wide eyed look and picked up the bags that Lily had dropped when she'd started to collapse and looked back at Leo who had Lily cradled in his arms bridal style. Already heading for the house.

Raph followed close behind, quietly observing his eldest brother's reaction to his precence, thinking that Leo was acting like his territorial instincts had been triggered in some way. But he couldn't imagine what would have set those off since Leo didn't have the same sort of territorial instincts he and the others did.

His instincts more or less declaired that his room was his territory, and anyone stupid enough to set foot in there should die screaming. Don's instincts were triggered when someone he didn't approve of was close to his lab and his toys.

Mikey got mean and pissy whenever someone entered the kitchen without permission from him. He'd thrown a knife at Splinter once because he'd walked in to make some tea without permission. Something that Splinter had nipped in the bud with a nice beatdown in the form of training.

Leo however, had never displayed any territorial urges or insticts at all. But he was displaying them _now_. His actions speaking as loudly as a neon sign hanging over his head. For some odd reason Leo was acting as if the little human girl were his.

Raph could lie to himself all he wanted but he'd seen the spark of jealousy in his older brother's dark eyes when he'd seen him holding the girl up. He rounded the corner to the house and saw that Leo had left the door open a crack and walked over and paused as he peeked through the small window there.

He could see Lily sitting on the couch with Leo sitting on the coffee table in front of her, her ankle grasped in his hand as he slipped her shoe off and talked to her in a low tone. Curious to know what Leo was saying to her, Raph pushed open the door a little bit and strained some to hear his brother.

"You have got to be the most stubborn, vexing girl I've ever met before in my life-" Leo said in a low rumbling tone. "Just because you can't feel pain doesn't mean that you can be careless with your life. Thanks to that outing of yours, your fever has spiked again."

"So you expect me to just sit here at home, take the pills that you hand to me, and do as I'm told with a smile on my face?" Raph almost snorted. Oh he knew the answer to her question. He'd disobeyed Leo enough times as a kid to know that Ol' Fearless hated being ignored.

Leo narrowed his eyes at her, unexpectantly feeling pissed about the way that she had just phrased her question but still managed a strained sounding, "Yes. If it means you'll get better faster."

"Ever hear of free will?" Lily asked in a peeved tone as he started to take her other shoe off of her foot and paused just long enough to give her a dirty look before he rubbed the soles of her foot through her sock and replied.

"Ever hear of common sense?" Lily gave him an offended look as he continued. "Besides, free will is vastly overrated. It does nothing but get you into trouble. Like your's for instance. Instead of staying home and resting like you were suppossed too- You went out and walked around in the cold for hours. Your fever is up, your hungry, tired-" He released her foot and reached out and grabbed her hands and hissed at how cold they felt to the touch.

God even his skin never felt this cold. Her hands were like ice! "Can you feel your fingers?" He asked in a suspicious tone as he rubbed her hands between his in an effort to warm them up.

Raph pushed the door open a little bit and slipped inside and closed the door by this time. He was utterly fascinated by what seemed to be going on between Lily and Leo. In fact the more he watched the more entranced he became until he was sure that Leo must have a crush or something on the girl.


	13. Chapter 13

_Raph pushed the door open a little bit and slipped inside and closed the door by this time. _

_He was utterly fascinated by what seemed to be going on between Lily and Leo. In fact the more he watched the more entranced he became until he was sure that Leo must have a crush or something on the girl._

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

No. Wait_. It isn't a crush or something._ Raph thought after observing for almost an hour. It would seem that Leo had totally forgotten about him if not for the dirty looks and glares that Leo occassionally sent his way.

No, what Leo was showing Raph was his slow and slightly_ maddening_ descent into his mating season.

Which was nothing to be ashamed of. It was just shocking to see something like this happening to his brother at such a critical time. After all, Leo was Lily's designated guardian for the time being. He was the one trying to get to know her and uphold their end of the whole _you're-one-of-us_ thing.

If master Splinter found out that Leo was starting to go into his mating season, he would forbid ol' fearless from having further contact with her while he was in his delicate state.

However if what he was seeing was right, trying to forbid Leo from seeing Lily during his needing would prove about as effective as forbiding a shark not to take a bite out of a person it thought was a seal.

Besides, Leo had already completeted the first part of mating. He had _bonded_ himself to Lily on an subconscious level. The fact that he thought of her as his mate so soon, even before consumation, was the only reason that Raph could think of for his brother's strange actions these past few days. After all, it wasn't in Leo to growl and snarl at people at every turn.

That was Raph's job. And he enjoyed rubbing others the wrong way _immensely_. Still...

This- This was unexpected. But it had happened before so at least he knew what to expect and how to run damage control. First was the subtle hints of going into season. The dredging up of their darker more animal instincts that caused them to bond with their chosen mate.

Now Raph still had no idea how they chose a mate or even what triggered their mating seasons since each of them went into it at different times.

But he knew that it wasn't a fallible process since Mikey had once bonded himself to a red rubber ball. But that had been back when he had been twelve and first starting puberty. Raph could recall how he had carried the ball around, how he treated it with the upmost of care, he'd named it, played with it, slept with it and even rigged a sling so that he could patrol with it.

He could also recall getting pissed at Mikey and popping it like a balloon and how devastated Mikey had been for months after wards.

Mikey had seemed like nothing more than a mere shell of his former self. Although he still randomly burst into tears and ran from the room whenever Dela was mentioned even in passing- so maybe he would never feel completely the same.

"Why are you still here Raph?" Leo asked in an irked tone as he finished wrapping a blanket around Lily's slender shoulders. Raph perked up upon being awknowledged by his brother at long last and gave him a faint grin, hoping that Leo wouldn't pick up on his discomfort or uncertainty since he had no idea how to proceed from here.

Seperating Leo from the girl when he'd bonded himself to her would just cause trouble.

But letting him stay so close to her in his current condition was dangerous in it's own way. For starters he wasn't entirely sure that Leo might not attempt to bind himself to her on a deeper level despite her obvious frailty and illness.

Which could be either good or bad depending on how bad Lily's health was and how difficult to control Leo became- An emerald green hand waved in front of his face. Snapping Raph out of his thoughts completely and forcing him to look up at his scowling elder brother's face.

"I-I'm sorry. What'd you say?" Raph asked automatically, trying to recall what Leo might have said or had said to him.

Leo frowned at him then said slowly as if talking to a moron. "I asked, why are you still here?"

"Oh. R'ght. I was just thinking that it was time for me to leave. But I wanted to make sure that the Lil princess was nice and comfy b'fore I said bye." Raph said as Lily seemed to be fighting with the blanket wrapped around her in a vain effort to get free. He and Leo turned their heads to watch her struggle and Leo smiled faintly when she squirmed around so much that she wound up toppling herself off of the couch with a startled yelp.

It was then that something clicked in Raphs mind and he laughed out loud. Oh dear god, Leo must be crazy. She was just so- so _defenseless_. It was adorable. No, _she_ was adorable. _I think I get it now. _Raph thought as it occurred to him why Leo would find a mating with Lily appealing.

It was because she really needed him.

Leo moved away from him and made his way over to Lily and knelt down to make sure that she was okay before teasingly saying, "Silly girl. Resistance is futile." As he carefully slipped an arm under her back and the other under where her legs should be and picked her up off of the floor.

While Raph stood up and headed for the door thinking that truer words had never been spoken.


	14. Chapter 14

Several days later-

Raph, despite his best judgement had kept what he'd learned about Leo to himself. Though he had almost spilled the beans when Don had called a family meeting (minus Leo since they hadn't been able to rouse him from his sleep) after finding something disturbing in Lily's background.

That something disturbing turned out to be Bishop.

The same man that had captured them numerous times and tried to disect them for his mad experiments. Don had dug as deep as he could to find out what sort of sick experiments had been done on Lily and had managed to print out a list of things before Bishop's 'government issued' computer had tried to hack Don's to give it a virus.

Needless to say that Don had sacrificed his computer and a few gadgets attached to it to keep Bishop from learning their location, identities ext. But not before he'd taken out Bishops gear for fucking with his.

Still they had all been sickened to know that the evil of Bishop had touched more than their lives. They had been even more sick when Don had passed around the list of experiments then explained what they hadn't understood.

To say that they were _horrified_ would be an understatement. They could understand to some extent why Bishop focused his biggotry on them. But a mere child? A sick one with a rare genetic disorder? Why was it that Lily had been mistaken for a freak?

Had she secretly been born with cloven hooves and a tail? Don had explained that Lily had been in Bishop's care for close to three months, two weeks and nine days. Plenty of time to brainwash her and do other horrible, distasteful things to her. He'd also explained that she had been saved by her grandfather who had been a former soldier of high ranking.

Apparently Lily was the only grandchild he had and he'd noticed a disturbing pattern of neglect and abuse on her parents part. Fearing that they may one day do something unforgivable, he had monitered them to the best of his abilities which was why he knew when something had happened, however it took time to gather proof of what had been done to Lily and by whom.

But inbetween information gaps the man had kicked up such a fuss that when he finally found out where she was and who had her, Bishop had had no other choice than to let Lily go or lose his labs, his ranking ext. After that the grandfather had siezed custody of Lily. And several weeks after that her parents were found dead from gunshot wounds.

But because Lily had no one left to protect her and already been through a horrible ordeal, plus the lack of evidence against him- the grandfather had gotten away with murder. By this time Splinter, Raph and Mikey's eyes were so wide that no one dared to joke about her coming from a bunch of crazies.

Though they had plenty of questions about whether or not Lily herself was sane. Don told them that she was probably as sane as anyone with a deeply buried trauma and that they should leave it at that.

However he did ask Splinter if it would be okay to bring her to the lair and examin her. Something that his master had balked at- at first. But after a little while Don had given him a very good reason to allow the girl down.

She was one of them now, and they took care of their own. He only asked that he have three days to clean his lab and make it steral again. Mikey had left it in less than stellar condition while he'd been recovering.

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

7:30 pm-

Lily was standing in the kitchen fixing something to eat for dinner when a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. Startled she gasped and started to use the spoon she had been using to stir the soup on the stove, in her hand to smack at one of the arms when the familiar feel registered with her and she all but dropped the spoon. "Leo?"

"Hm?"

"What are you doing sneaking up behind me?" She asked in an irked tone that caused him to smile.

"I was practicing my stealth skills on you-" He said in an amused tone as he nuzzled the side of her face before saying, "Your fever has broken."

"Yeah. _Soooo_ why are you here?"

"Maybe I just like your company-" Leo said off handedly as he sniffed the air before asking. "What are you making?" Whatever it was, it smelled wonderful.

"Pasta. Chicken rigatoni with an alfredo and herbs sauce to be exact. With vegetable soup and a small side salad." Lily said as she pointed to the pots, skillet, and the vegetables she had been in the middle of cutting up when he had startled her.

"Sounds good. Do you have enough for two?" Leo asked, part of him wanting try his chosen mate's cooking. He reluctantly slipped his arms from around her waif like body so that he could take a seat at the table behind her. Lily turned around to look at him, her turqoise colored eyes wide, her expression slightly taken aback.

"W-Why-" Lily started to ask. Leo shrugged his shoulders and tried to look unruffled despite the fact that her expression at the moment pretty much let him know that she found his request odd and just a little bit uncomfortable. She fell silent for a moment and looked back at her dinner, thinking that eating in front of him would be just a tad bit unfair and sighed before asking.

"How do you like your food?" As she picked up another carrot and then looked at him again. Leo smiled at her and told him how he liked his food and then sat back and watched her as she made some for him. About half way through each dish she stopped to let him taste the food.

Starting with the pasta then the soup, both of which were fantastic. Then she handed him a piece of yellow pepper that she had cut up for the salad. All of them were good. So much so that when Leo sat back to wait for the actual dishes he let a loud rumbling purr of contentment vibrate his chest.

"Wow, you sound happy." Lily said hesitantly as she started to fix his plate, then grabbed a bowl and spoon for his soup.

"I am." Leo said with a smile as she set his dinner down in front of him then asked what he wanted to drink. He told her that milk was fine and while her back was turned took an experimental bite of the pasta and quickly swallowed as she turned back around and set a glass of milk down in front of him.

"Did you just taste your food?" Lily asked in a teasing tone. Leo gave her an innocent look and took another bite, this time he bothered to chew enough to really taste it. It was _wonderful_. Turns out that his Lily was a really good cook.

Like almost as good as Mikey. Which was a huge compliment since his brother could cook just about anything and get it right on the first try. "You're such a good cook. How is it that no one has snatched you up by now?" He asked curiously as he watched her take a careful bite of her food. She looked up at him, her expression stupified.

Where on earth had that question come from? And why was it any of_ his_ business? She wondered before she bothered answering. "I'm single by choice. I don't have a particular fondness for men."

Leo looked at her and made a mental note to wait until after dinner to ask her what she meant.


	15. Chapter 15

They spoke some while eating, Leo trying to coax Lily into light conversation and Lily responding politely though she clammed up whenever he asked her something about herself that she obviously felt would reveal too much about how she had grown up. So instead he told her stories about himself and his family. How they came to be. Their hobbies.

Some of his childhood adventures. Which seemed to spark an interest in sharing something of herself so she told him about her grandfather and would smile and laugh along with him as she spoke of the man.

Turns out that her grandfather was one hell of a character. Eerily similar to Splinter, yet not.

At the moment she was busy telling him how her grandfather gave her the _boys-are-scum-and-will-eat-you-alive-if-you-aren't-wary-of-them_ talk in all it's embarrassing detail while driving around the block for three hours. By the time she was done speaking she pushed back her chair and started to get up when Leo decided that now was the time to ask her about her comment earlier.

"So... Is the talk your grandfather had with you why you don't like men?" Lily reached for one of his dishes and paused to look at him, seemingly startled by his question and seemed to mull over his question before saying.

"No. Though I have my reasons to be wary of them." She picked up his empty glass, his plate and made a nice neat little pile before he reached out and grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She looked at him again noting that his expression looked almost desperate. _How odd. _She thought as he said in a pleading tone.

"Tell me why you dislike men."

"Why do you want to know?" Lily asked warily as she placed a hand over his own and tried to pry his fingers free of her wrist. But that was a rather difficult thing to do since he had a grip like a steel vice and was refusing to let go.

"Because it means _something_." He said. Putting emphasis on the word, something. She tried tugging her wrist free one last time and suddenly felt him pull on her arm, forcing her around the edge of the table. And right into his lap where he wrapped an arm around her slender waist and used his free hand to brush some of her dark hair back from her face as she flushed a cute pink.

"Tell me." He urged her again, as he leaned his head forward a little bit and buried his face against against her throat and inhaled her scent. Oh god she had such an intoxicating scent.

So sweet and spicey at the same time. He could easily sit here with her in his lap and breathe her in for hours.

Lily was trying to hold herself as still as possible despite her sudden concern about having this turtle man at her throat, sniffing her. Part of her was scared that he might try acting out a monster movie scene and bite her throat out while the more logical side of her mind was telling her that he wasn't hurting her. Give him the benefit of the doubt.

But then she felt something wet and warm run along the side of her neck and stiffened even more. Jesus Christ! Did he just lick her? _Cue the monster movie re enactment. _She thought as he made a softer purring sound and sighed. Well hell, she needed to put an end to this or else it might lead to something that could actually hurt not just hurt but him too.

"I was sold by my parents when I was about thirteen or so, to an man from the government-" Leo jerked back, his head snapping up on his neck so fast that he startled a squeak from Lily just before she lost her balance and fell back and hit her head on the table with a loud thunk.

And lay there stunned as he muttered several nasty sounding oaths in another language before pulling her upright.

Shifting his hold on her so that his hand was resting in the middle of her back under her hair, he apologized for scaring her then asked her to continue. But Lily wasn't altogether sure that it would be wise to tell him what had happened to her. So she gave him a brief discription of how horrible the experience had been then asked him if he'd like to watch a movie.

Hoping to change the subject and rebury old ghosts.

Leo sensed that Lily was finished talking about her encounter and after rubbing the back of her head for several minutes before finally nodding and telling her that a movie would be nice then let her go so that she could finish gathering the dishes and putting them in the sink to be washed later. Then followed her to the living room where she found The Green Hornet and put it in while he got comfortable on the couch and waited for her to join him.

The second that she sat down, he reached out and hooked a hand around her nape and gave a slight tug. Toppling her so that she was leaning against him. "Hey. What-"

"Hush. I don't know everything that guy did to you when you were a kid, Lily. But I can understand why you don't want to talk about it. So instead of asking for details, just let me hold you like this and comfort you for a while. Since I doubt that there have been many people who have ever bothered to try in the past." Leo said softly, stopping any protest that may have sat on the tip of her tongue.

She stared at him for a moment then sighed and lay her head on his shoulder as he ran one hand through her hair, stroking the dark strands in what he hoped was a comforting manner so that she could forget what had happened to her more quickly.


	16. Chapter 16

As soon as The Green Hornet's ending credits began, Leo looked down at Lily whom had been strangely still for a while now. Recognizing the familiar patterns of sleep- the soft shallow breathing, the lack of limb movement or restlessness that came from being awake.

He smiled faintly as he pulled the TV remote from her limp fingers and turned the TV off then set the remote aside so that he could enjoy a few simple minutes of quiet with her pressed against his side before he had to get up and carry her to bed.

He leaned his head back against the back of the couch and closed his eyes as he lifted a hand so that he could resume stroking her hair.

He ran his hand along the silken strands, delighting in the softness as she stirred for a moment, almost waking before settling back down again. Leo made a soft humming noise but didn't bother opening his eyes. He was perfectly content to stay as he was for as long as he could, besides, it wasn't like Lily was awake and moving around.

She was resting. Perhaps for the first time in a long time because she finally loosened up and relaxed enough to feel safe with him around.

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"Okay Mikey. I've kept you bedridden long enough-" Don said as he put the latest X-ray of Mickey's head wound down on the small metal table under the fluorescent lights as his younger brother whooped happily and punched the air with a fist. Oh yeah, he was home free!

Don chuckled at his childlike behavior and shook his head as he thought, _And now that I've pumped him up- It's time to squash him like a bug. _

Mikey started to get off of the uncomfortable make shift bed he'd been on for over a week when he suddenly heard Don say, "Yes, you can get out of bed now and leave my lab. But your still not in any condition to train or go out patroling. So I suggest you park your shell on the couch and try to keep the roaches from carrying it off."

Mikey's excitment died down and then fizzled out as he looked at Don in disbelief. He couldn't be serious. But Don's overly cheerful expression told him otherwise as his brainy older brother said happily. "By the way if I hear of or even catch you trying to escape the lair, I'll go misery on your ass and _break_ something important off." Mikey's eyes got really wide and he made a choking/sputtering sound.

Crap, it looked like Don was serious after all...

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Bishop looked over the old files that had just been returned to his lab on Lily Ericson and blinked in surprise behind his shades. What he held in his hands was the result of the last experiment he'd conducted on the girl before her damned grandfather had pulled rank on him and gotten her back. The same day he'd handed her back over to the old man, all of his files and experiment documentation had been stolen from him and locked away, making it so that he hadn't been able to see the results of all his hard work.

Turns out his theory about her illness hadn't been even a _little_ bit close to right. His experiments hadn't comepletely cured her. In fact his experiments had made her illness worse due to the fact that he had mutated it and thereby Lily herself.

According to the papers he held, her aging process had slowed to a snails pace, her immune system was stonger, her bone density was stronger- The only real drawback to the whole thing was her diet. A diet of specific foods would help her function better while everything else that a normal person ate would make her gravely ill.

He hummed and wondered if she had managed to survive all these years. He'd love to have his hands on her again and finalize a few things. Just to see what would happen. "But first I'd have to find her." He said to himself as a wicked smile curved his lips.

And with his thoughts of finding her firmly in place, he folded the paper in half and turned and walked over to his computer and thrust the paper into the face of one of his men and told him to find the girl.


	17. Chapter 17

Leo walked into the lair at eight thirty that morning, just a half hour after waking up on the couch with Lily more or less curled up in his lap, and found himself face to face with his curious father. "Leonardo-"

_Crap. _Leo thought before asking in a hesitant tone. "Yes sensei?" He put his over night bag down at his feet and faced the three in a half foot rat that had raised him and his brothers.

"You are half an hour late. Is there a reason?" Splinter asked in a mild tone as somewhere behind him Raph came out of his room and started towards them. Possibly to greet Leo. Leo gave his father a small smile and explained how he'd fallen asleep on the couch with Lily. And how he'd woken up at eight and then had to carry her to her bedroom and put her to bed before coming home.

Splinter listened to his eldest son's excuse for being late and smiled softly.

It sounded like things were going well with the newest member of their clan. That was good since he had expected the girl to give more resistance towards their presence in her life. After all she might feel as if her privacy or way of life was being hindered by them in some way.

And in a fashion she would be right.

The rules that Splinter had carefully thought up to govern their small clan had been thought up with nothing but _hiding_ and _protection_ in mind. He had never thought that there would be humans in the whole wide world that would accept them as they are. Not when they could turn into butchers like Bishop and question _all_ things in a sick and twisted manner.

"I am glad that Miss Ericson is getting along so well with you, my son-" Splinter said as Raph turned abruptly on his heel and headed back to his bedroom with his head down. "Donatello and I were speaking earlier and we feel that since Miss Ericson has accepted our presence then perhaps it is time to bring her to the lair."

Leo opened his mouth to agree then stopped and shut his mouth as his father's words registered with him. It was all well and good that everyone else wanted to meet Lily- hell, they even had the right too. But he wasn't sure that she would feel comfortable leaving her home. In fact he'd never once, aside from the night they met her or the few times she had gone out grocery shopping, seen her out in public.

She just seemed uncomfortable around people that she didn't know. So he wasn't sure if bringing her to the lair would be a good thing or not. What if she got overwhelmed? Had a flashback of that kidnapping that she had mentioned?

What would they do then?

Something like recalling a severe trauma could mentally scar her and keep her from functioning for days, weeks, months, even years. "My son? Is something wrong?" Splinter asked, noticing the worried look on Leonardo's face. Leo's eyes met his and he slowly shook his head.

"No father. Nothing's wrong. I just need to speak to Donnie that's all." Splinter tilted his head to the side a bit, noting the worried look on Leo's face and wondered what was going through his mind right that moment. However instead of asking he decided to let things slide and let his son's sort things out for themselves. He and Leo bowed to each other then went their seperate ways.

Leo stopped by his room to put his overnight bag away as Raph peeked out and 'psst' him a couple of times to gain his attention before asking in a hushed tone. "Is Master Splinter gone?"

"Yes." Leo replied in an equally hushed tone. Raph gave him a thumbs up and disappeared back inside of his room, not caring that his older brother thought his behavior odd. To be perfectly honest he knew that he was being less than subtle about his actions, he just didn't want to have a possibly violent confrontation with Leo or Splinter just yet.

Leo might rip his head off in an less than brotherly way due to his _'attraction_' to Lily. Whereas Splinter just might crack his shell open just for the hell of it since keeping secrets from him wasn't allowed. _Ever. _

Leo stood there for a second wondering what was going on with Raph while mentally shaking himself. He still had a conversation with Donnie to get himself through and he had a feeling that it wouldn't be pretty since the sleep deprived self made doctor of the group's personality did a one eighty after so many days.

Hell he wouldn't put it past the brainiac to be waiting to ambush him the second he stepped into his lair.

_Whoever said that the devil was in the details has never met up with a mad geek. _Leo thought as he headed for Don's lair. He got about halfway there when Mikey popped up over the arm of the couch, startling the blue clad turtle some, and looked at him through bleary eyes before muttering a soft. "Sorry dude." As he rubbed his eyes.

Leo stopped and reached out and put a hand on top of Mikey's head and rubbed the rough leathery skin there. "That's okay Mikey-" Leo said as he forced himself to relax and his heart beat to slow as he asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'd be a lot better if Donnie wasn't threatening to break some of my limbs off every hour or so." Mikey said tiredly as he laid his head down on the arm of the chair and let Leo and his magic fingers help him drift back off to sleep a bit.

"So Don's in one of his moods?" Leo's question partially jarred him awake. But only enough to nod his head.

"Yeah. Donnie-Hyde has been in a mood for a couple of hours-" Mikey said in a drowsy tone. "I think he's just anxious to know if he's going to be able to meet the princess soon."

"Princess?" Leo asked in amusement.

"Yeah, it's what Donnie-Hyde and Raph have been calling...uh-" Mikey faltered and frowned a little bit, unable to recall his saviors actual name.

"Her name is Lily, Mikey. I thought someone had told you." Leo said gently.

"Someone might have but you know how I suck with names. So her name is Lily..." Mikey said in a thoughtful tone.

"Yeah. So?"

"Oh nothing I was just thinking that for someone named after something so fragile, she's pretty sturdy."

"I dunno about that Mikey-" Leo said, earning an unreadable look from his little brother. "I think she's just as fragile as her namesake. A good strong wind would blow her away." Leo said as his hand fell back to his side and he muttered about needing to do something about Donnie and his split personality as he resumed his trek to the lab where Don was waiting for him.

The second Leo stepped into Dons lair he got the feeling that he should be hearing the song the Phantom of the Opera played when he was under the opera house.

The normally sterile environment looked almost like a haunted house. The lights were dimed and flickering, there were broken machine parts scattered everywhere. And Don was sitting slouched down in his chair, in front of his computer, staring a hole through him. "So when do we meet her?" Don asked.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that-"

"You aren't going to say no are you? Splinter and Mikey really want to meet her." Don said as he started to drum his fingertips on the arm of his chair to show that his calmness was fading bit by bit.

"No. No, I won't say no I merely wanted to speak to you about an experience that she had as a-"

"Your talking about the kidnapping-"

"You already know-" Leo said in a surprised tone before scowling. Of course Donnie knew about the kidnapping, he always knew things before the rest of them did. But at the very least maybe Leo could get some specifics about Lily's kidnapping from his brother. "Could you tell me what happened to her? The specifics I mean?"

Don stopped drumming his fingers and frowned at Leo then sighed and reached over and picked up a paper pad and started listing some of the more gruesome things Bishop had done. "She had holes drilled in several bones, her skull included and had tissues removed. Forced pregnancy. Forced miscarrage. Broken bones. A few small organs removed..."

"Enough! Enough! I don't want to hear any more!" Leo shouted as bile burned the back of his throat, making his eyes tear up. Good god, how could anyone do such a thing to a little kid? And whats more, why hadn't he left it alone when it had been obvious that Lily hadn't wanted him to know?

Donnie ignored his protests however because he was on a roll and continued to go down his list. "A little bit of exposure to radiation-"

"I said enough Donnie!" Leo roared, turning the full force of his fury on his brother. Don fell silent and tossed the note pad back down onto his desk with a shrug. "Goddamn it what the hell is wrong with you?" Leo almost screamed at Don once he was silent.

"I could ask you the same thing Leo. You're shaking." Don pointed out before his older brother made his way across the room and punched him in the face with all the force of a pickup truck. The next thing Don knew- he was waking up on the cold floor with Mikey hovering over him looking wide eyed, Leo was gone, and the lair was in an uproar.


	18. Chapter 18

Sorry- I've been dealing with depression. And being stressed by my husband and such doesn't help any.

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"Where is Leonardo?" Splinter demanded angrily as Mikey helped Donnie up off of the floor. Next to their rat father, Raph sighed and looked a little bit sypathetic towards his brother. He couldn't believe that Leo would attack Don then just storm out without a word. It just wasn't like him.

"I think I know where he went." Raph said before asking, "Donnie, what the hell did you say to him to set him off?"

"Not much." Don said as he rubbed the side of his jaw where Leo had hit him. He could already feel a bruise forming under his skin, taste the coppery twang of blood in his mouth- _Ohhh_, _Leo is so going to pay for this the next time he is wounded._ Donnie fumed as he worked his jaw while listening to Splinter talk to Raph.

"I want you to go and bring your brother back."

"Master I- There's something that I need to tell you-" Raph stuttered.

"Later-" Splinter cut Raph off abruptly. "Right now your brother must be brought home before someone see's him."

"But this is really, really important-" Raph said, hoping to gain his father's attention long enough to explain _what_ exactly Leo's reaction may have stemmed from. Splinter cut him off again, this time with a glare as Don thanked Mikey for his help then shooed him away and walked over to a duffle bag and started packing some tools.

Mostly needles with sedatives, and others for drawing blood. A blood pressure machine. A stethoscope and a few other things then zipped up the bag and walked over to Raph and hooked an arm around his neck and said in a low growling tone. "I'm going with you."

"I- I- I would really rather you didn't." Raph said weakly. But then Don-Hyde made another appearance and slipped his hand down the front of Raph's plastron to where his genetals were and flicked his wrist. Raph yelped and jumped back a little bit as a scalpel appeared out of nowhere and narrowly missed his manhood.

"No more arguing, Raph. I won't miss next time." Don said as he glared at his red clad brother for a moment before stepping out of the lab. Raph looked at Splinter who had been watching the exchange with a look of curiosity and pointed at Don's back as if to say, _Why don't you do something about him? _

Splinter shrugged his shoulders at his son as if to say, _You know how he gets-_ But the truth of the matter was that Splinter didn't do anything because he was getting old and would soon be at the point where he would be of little help to anyone in a fight.

That and Donnie-Hyde scared the hell out of him.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lily woke up in her bedroom, alone with yet again no memory of how she came to be there and sighed. It wasn't that she minded waking up in her bed, she just wished that her new green friend would leave some trace of himself behind.

Although...

The other morning she had found a priceless jade dagger on her living room coffee table and had set it aside to give back to him. Since it was obviously something of relevance. But for some reason whenever he came to see her, she forgot that she had the blasted thing.

Sighing again she pushed the covers back and sat up in bed. She had no time to dwell on such things, today was cleaning day which meant that she needed to get up and get to work.

She got out of bed and walked over to her dresser and grabbed some old worn clothes to wear while cleaning and quickly slipped them on then grabbed a hair scrunchy and tied her hair back so that it would be out of the way, then headed into the bathroom to get started.

She must have been in there for thirty minutes or more because by the time she was done scrubbing her shower it was so spotless that she could have eaten off of it. Which was probably why she was so startled when Leo's voice sounded out of nowhere, fairly shaking her house. Reaching out absently she touched the rattling glass of her shower and bit back the urge to whistle.

_Wow, what a set of lungs. _She thought as she heard the distant slamming of her front door followed by another loud bellow that rattled the glass of her shower and other things, yet again. "Lily! Dammit answer me! Where are you?"

_It's too early in the morning to deal with an irate oversized turtle. So why is it I'm not running? _Lily wondered as she climbed into the shower and silently closed the glass door behind her. It wasn't much of a hiding place, but it wasn't like he'd find her right off the-

The shower door opened and Leo filled the space between the shower and the counter, his expression thunderous. "What are you doing?"

Lily looked down at her damp clothes and the scrub brush and rubber gloves next to her and hummed then said weakly, "Cleaning things in my sleep again apparently. What are you doing here?" Leo's only response was to turn the shower on causing her to shriek as she was bombarded by cold water for several seconds before the water was turned off again. And a fluffy towel was draped over her head as Leo gathered her up and headed towards her bedroom.

Or at least she thought he was heading towards her bedroom.

Once there Leo set her on her feet and pushed the towel back away from her face and said in a guttural voice. "_Strip_."

Lily looked at him with an expression of disbelief as she stammered, "I-I b-beg y-y-your p-pardon?" She was _not_ stripping for some guy that she just barely knew. No way. No how.

"Strip Lily. I need to see your body." Leo said as he thought back to his conversation with Donnie earlier. Something about what Don had said about Lily having tissues, and organs removed had nagged at his mind. Making him wonder if things had been done by a professional or not.

The only way he'd know for sure was from the scars. But first he'd have to see them. Which meant that he needed Lily to strip so that he could look her over and maybe find out who the monster was that had hurt her.

But so far she wasn't cooperating. "_No_."

"Lily please. I would never do anything to hurt you but I need you out of those wet clothes and-"

"My clothes wouldn't have gotten wet if you hadn't have-"_ Well okay she still isn't cooperating. Now I have to move on to phase two. _Leo thought in frustration as he reached out and grasped the soaking wet girl and quickly pressed his beak against her lips to silence her while using his heavier body to subconsciously move her closer to her bed.

Lily wasn't sure how to react to the turtle man's mouth pressing against her own. Part of her didn't mind while another part of her wanted to argue that this was wrong. Immoral even.

Kissing a creature that wasn't human was wrong in every sense of the word. But if that was true- why was she finding it so hard to think? To lift her arms and push him away? Her heart fluttered in her chest as his tongue snaked out to teasingly lick along her lower lip as the back of her legs hit the bed.

He toppled her over and quickly pinned her forcing a gasp from her as he pressed down on her a little bit and slipped a hand up under her shirt, his fingers splayed wide along the flat of her stomach. Lily twitched slightly and reached up to grab his shoulders, part of her wanting to push him away while the other part of her wanted to drag him closer.

Leo took advantage of Lily's distracted state of mind and leaned down so that he could kiss her again while he moved his hand lower, feeling for a small dip in her stomach or abdomen. Something to indicate which organs and tissues had been taken. He got dangerously close to slipping his hand down the front of her shorts when he caught the scent of her arousal and got more than a little distracted.

Oh god that smell! It was as sweet as it was pungent. So lovely and addictive, he could stay in this room with her and breathe her scent in forever.

He pulled back a little bit and nuzzled the curve of her jaw, wanting more access to her skin. She let her head fall back against the covers and he again pressed his advantage and nipped at her throat forcing a strangled moan from her as she dug her fingernails into his shoulders.

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"Is this where she lives?" Don asked, finding Lily Ericson's taste in homes more than a little quaint. It was cozy even. However the fact that she had no real security aside from _his_ specially designed security system disturbed him.

"Yeah this is it." Raph said as he knocked on the front door, hoping that Lily would answer so that he and Don-Hyde wouldn't have to go looking for her. He really didn't want to disturb the poor girl if she was asleep or something.

Raph knocked again and waited and after repeating the process for a third time and getting nowhere fast Don suggested that he check the door to see if it was locked. Raph was reluctant so Don did it for him and gave him an _'Dumbass'_ look as he opened the door.

"Does she usually keep the door unlocked?" Don asked with a frown.

"Not that I'm aware of." Raph said.

"Fantastic. Then Leo is _probably_ here." Donnie-Hyde said as he stepped inside the home of their clan's princess and looked around the neat and tidy living room.

Lily didn't have much in the way of personal possessions or furniture. She had a couch. A coffee table, two book shelves (one big and one small) one with books another with DVD's. A small table with a modest sized TV, a DVD player, a small sterio and three CD's. Curious, Don made his way to the kitchen to look a little more and found that her kitchen had one set of mismatched dishes.

Four glass cups, a some cooking utensils and dishes.

"Don what are you doing going through her kitchen?" Raph asked from somewhere behind him. Don closed the cabinets and sighed. Damn. Of all the things to find, this was not what he'd expected. Lily it seemed was running from something and bought only what she needed.

There was a strange sound from down the hall that caught both turtles attention.

Stealthily the two headed down the hall to the bedroom where they had heard a few other sounds similar to the first and were semi able to identify it. It was a human sound, a soft moan. Although they weren't able to tell if it was pained or not.

They paused just outside the bedroom just in time to hear a low breathless moan and exchanged a look. Reaching out they both placed a hand on the bedroom door and slowly pushed it open just enough to see Lily laying on her bed without her shirt, her face flushed, her hair damp, and she was gripping the bedsheets in a white knuckled grip, breathing raggedly.

And Leo had her pinned to the bed, his face against her stomach, his large hands tightly grasping her hips.

Don's jaw went slack in shock and disbelief as Raph inwardly cringed. _Son of a- _They shouldn't be seeing this. It was wrong. So Raph slapped a hand over Don's mouth and started dragging his still shocked brother _away_ from the bedroom before Leo caught sight of them.


	19. Chapter 19

Leo felt a little bit disgusted with himself for taking advantage of Lily in such a way, but he kept telling himself- He needed to know _who_ had permanently marked her body with surgical scars.

After all, a novice would leave behind butchered skin, muscle and organs. Which would have led to death unless they had anticipated that and known how to fix the damage done and prevent an infection.

But a professional would leave shallow scars, a faint dip in the skin from beginning to end. So the second he knew that she didn't have the strength to resist him any further, he removed her shirt by pulling it over her head.

Pausing slightly when he noticed that she was only wearing a thin emerald green lace bra. Finding the color a curious choice for her, he started to ask her about it when she came up off of the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him..._hard_.

_Well, well- _His mind practicaly purred in surprise and delight as he reached up and carefully pried her arms from around his neck while kissing her for all he was worth. His heart pounded, his mind temporarily blanked. He didn't recall anything of removing her bra or filling his hands with her breasts and teasing the nipples.

Nor did he recall anything of the playful little nips he trailed along her skin.

His mind only seemed to return to it's semi normal functional state once he unbuttoned her shorts and stopped when he felt her skin dip a little bit under his palm. Narrowing his dark blue eyes he followed the path of the scar. It started in two thin surgical cuts that began around her pelvic bone and went up almost to her belly button before curving off to the side a bit.

Creating a little bit of a V effect. _My god. _He thought, feeling just a little bit sickened by how much she must have suffered.

Leo ran his hand over it three times, trying to figure out what sort of person would do such a thing- But that was before he noticed the tiny pinpricks that looked like a series of needle marks along her abdomen that were camouflaged to look like little freckles, and the thin scars along her ribs.

Someone professional had put a scalpel against her skin, that much was for sure.

Fury rose up white hot in his gut but he quickly pushed it aside before he lashed out and hurt Lily. Especially since he knew just how breakable she was now that he had his hands on her. So instead he lowered his head to the V shaped scar, just over her pubic bone and kissed the skin there...gently, _reverently _as his piercing eyes flickered to her flushed face.

Even with the scars, he didn't think he'd ever seen anything so beautiful before.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Raph managed to get Donnie outside before his senses seemed to return and he slapped Raph's hand away from his mouth and suddenly dug in his heels as if he were about to throw the red clad turtle. Raph braced himself for Don-Hyde to appear when his brother suddenly started babbling. "Were they mating? They couldn't be could they? Our mating seasons are another month in a half off-"

"Yeah well. Nature finds a way." Raph said dryly as he released Don before he could surprise attack him.

"Does Splinter know that things have progressed this far?" Don asked curiously. Raph shook his head no then eyed his brother warily. Wondering what was going through his mind.

"Man, _I_ didn't even know that things had gotten_ that_ far." Don hummed and looked thoughtful for a moment then looked at Raph and asked.

"Had he given any indication that he was going into season early?"

"Define the word 'indication'."

"You know what I mean Raph. Was he acting terrirorial? More overly protective? Did he react in an uncharacteristic way to seeing other males near her?" Raph looked away and scratched his cheek with one blunt neatly trimmed fingernail. He wasn't answering that. In fact, he wasn't answering anything.

Don was staring a hole through him now and he was starting to get a little twitchy when Don finally said, "Fascinating. Well since they've already started it would be rude to seperate them now."

"Then what do we do?"

"Sit here and wait for them to finish then drag him home."

"You know as well as I do that once he's mated, he won't leave here willingly."

"Then we'll just have to take her with us."

"You mean kidnap a human kid from her own home? Jesus Donnie what are you thinking?"

"Not much at the moment. I haven't slept in days and I'm going through coffee withdrawl."

"That's no excuse for checking out on us. We _may_ be in a time of crisis here!"

"Oh no, brother. We _are_ in a time of crisis. There is nothing more unstable than a newly mated male with something to protect." Don said with a creepy looking smile that could have passed as murderous and excited both.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leo kissed the spot over Lily's heart then pulled back to look at her one last time. He was pretty sure now who had kidnapped her and _why_, or at least he thought he knew why. Which meant that his Lily was still in trouble. Especially since Bishop never gave up once he found a prey.

He grabbed the forgotten towel and pulled the sides closed so that he could cover her as he nuzzled the underside of her jaw as she slowly came back to her senses. "Y-You stopped?" She asked as she took a shuddering breath and brushed her lips across his cheek. Leo hummed softly.

Of course he had stopped. Because no matter how much he wanted to keep going, she didn't know what it would mean for her and he would have her come to him of her own free will. To want him as he wanted her.

"You didn't say you wanted to continue so I had to stop." He said after a moment or so of silence as he moved off of the bed and away from her without going too far. Lily frowned as if she didn't understand what he meant.

And maybe she didn't, he wasn't worried about stopping this time since there would be other chances for him to strip her and love her as only he could.


	20. Chapter 20

Lily wasn't sure what to _think_ or _feel_ as she sat up and covered her bare breasts with shaking hands as she looked up at Leo. Her expression confused. "Are you alright?" He asked her as she slowly, very slowly shifted on the bed and looked away as her face flushed with embarrassment. How could he? How could he kiss and touch her like that then act as if nothing had happened?

She didn't understand. Why would he do such a thing to her?

Was he trying to humiliate her? Is that why he had stripped her and done such things to her? She heard him ask her again if she was alright and wanted to snap at him that no, she wasn't alright.

She suddenly wanted to throw up.

Her eyes teared up and she grabbed the wet shirt that she had been wearing before things had gotten odd. And without so much as a look at him, slipped it on and walked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut then sank to the floor and promptly started crying.

Leo wasn't sure to do when Lily refused to answer him the first few times he asked if she was okay. His first instinct had been to embrace her and hold her until she told him that she was fine. And he would have if not for the fact that he had noticed the way she was acting.

Distracted, distant, _aloof_- as if she didn't know how to react to what he had done. Granted he'd gone about stripping her of her clothing in a rather forceful manner but he hadn't hurt her. He doubted he had even scared her. After all, if she was scared she would have just screamed for help.

Wouldn't she?

So then maybe she was mad at him for stripping her. Since some women didn't like having their flaws seen in the light of day, but then in the short time he'd come to know her, he'd never once seen her act vain about her appearance. Yet he _knew_- just absolutlely _knew_ that something was wrong. He just wished that she would say something.

Bending down he picked up her bra and her shorts then walked over to the bathroom door and hesitantly knocked on the plywood door. "Lily? Hey I have the rest of your clothing here if you want-"

"Go away!" Lily sobbed from the other side of the door, the broken sound of her voice giving Leo more of a reason to tred carefully. Tilting his head a little bit to the side he listened to the sounds coming from within the bathroom. He could hear soft sobbing inbetween hiccups.

Not hysterical sounding, though he would have understood that reaction better. Just... Quiet as if she were grieving.

_What are you grieving for? _Leo wondered as he pressed the side of his head against the door, trying to hear where she was. If she was far enough away from the door then he could break it down to reach her. Well- okay that wasn't totally honest- he could easily rip the door knob out so that the door would open for him. But somehow he doubted that she would appreciate that much.

After calculating her location (which was a little too close for him to simply kick the damned door down) Leo sighed and decided that there was only one way to get her to come out was to pretend that he was leaving.

"Alright Lily, you win. I'll...go." He said in a sad tone as he moved away from the door, quickly making his way back to the bedroom where he laid her bra and shorts on the bed before stuffing himself in her closet and silently closed the door.

Encasing himself in inky blackness to wait.

Lily stopped sobbing and hiccuped as she heard his footsteps retreating away from the door and sniffled as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. _Did he really leave? _She wondered as she used the counter next to the sink to pull herself up. Once on her feet she got some tissues to blow her nose with. Then washed her face, hoping to erase all traces of her crying.

But she couldn't remove the red rims from her eyes. Giving her the appearance that she was wearing cosmedics. She took the time to fix her hair, this time deciding to braid it. And paused slightly when she saw something through her shirt that made her go slack jawed in disbelief.

There on the left side of her collarbone, through the transparent fabric of her shirt was a dark redish mark. _A hickey. _She thought numbly as she pulled the fabric aside a little bit to get a better look at the mark. _I haven't even really done anything and I already have a hickey from a guy that I barely know. _

Her grandfather would be rolling over in his grave right about now.

And she- all she could do was stare at the mark and blush at the thought of how it had gotten there. Finally after several minutes she managed to pull herself together enough to finish what she'd been doing. Then she opened the bathroom door and cautiously peeked out just to be sure that Leo wasn't waiting for her before stepping out.

She made her way to her bedroom quietly and found her bra and shorts on her bed where Leo had obviously put them and scowled a little bit, unsure as to why he had bothered to pick up the clothing in the first place when she could have just as easily done it herself.

She sighed and looked down at herself, noting that her shirt was still damp enough to see through and made her way to her dresser where she pulled out a white cotton sports bra and an old overly large blue, aqua, mint green and black flannel shirt.

Leo's eyes widened a little bit in nervous alarm as he imagined Lily's hands gripped the hem of her shirt and started to pull it up when he closed his eyes deciding to give her as much privacy as he could since he was in her closet. Even though he couldn't see her.

He heard the faint rustle of clothing as her damp shirt was pulled over her head and tossed onto the floor. Then heard the rustling of more fabric as she redressed herself.

Finally after about ten minutes or so, he opened his eyes and after telling himself that he was acting like an idiot- it wasn't like he could see through the closet door after all- figured that it was finally time to confront her on why she had been crying.

After all, if he had caused some sort of emotional wound, he wanted to damn well know about it so that he could make up for it.

He silently opened the closet door and peeked out into the bedroom just in time to see Lily slipping her panties down her legs to replace them with a dry pair and saw her pause in mid bow when their eyes locked. He opened his mouth to apologize as her face flushed a nice pink color and her eyes got as wide as saucers as a horrified squeak escaped her throat.

_Oh shell. _He'd done it now.


	21. Chapter 21

Leo's mouth opened and closed several times as he put a hand out to try and sign to her that he hadn't meant to look. Especially not when she was in such a vulnerable state. In fact, he hadn't meant to do anything at all! However Lily beat him to the punch and let out a loud horrified scream a split second before she lashed out with one leg and tried to kick him in the face.

He yelped, only partially understanding that she felt she was defending herself and jumped back to dodge the blow but there wasn't much room in the closet in which to dodge. So thinking quickly he wedged himself shell first into the farthest corner of the tiny area and nearly jumped out of his skin when her foot came through the wooden door breaking it into slivers.

He gaped for a second as her bare foot hit the wall next to his shoulder. Jesus Christ, her foot had almost hit him! And the sheer amount of strength behind the blow might have done some serious damage to him too.

The fact that this registered with him was startling to say the least as he tried to reason with her, "Lily! I didn't mean too!"

"_Bastard!_ You may say that but your nothing but a pervert trying to take advantage of me!" Lily shrieked angrily as he grasped her ankle and tried to keep her at a distance to keep the both of them in one piece.

Leo inwardly cringed at her words and tried not to think about how much they hurt him as he forced her to hop back on one foot while he carefully tried to exit the closet, when he suddenly heard two sets of footsteps and turned his head just as Raph and Don filled the bedroom door and Lily blanched.

"We heard a scream-" Raph started to say as Leo's somewhat panicked expression suddenly became murderous.

Don took an automatic step back, expecting Leo to go for his katana blades while Raph tried to explain why they were there to begin with before the human female clubbed him over the head with a lamp bringing the red clad turtle to his knees swearing before the human went for Leo.

Don stood there for several minutes in a stupor, his mind not really comprehending what his eyes were seeing. Leo tossed the human onto her bed and tried pinning her- However he wound up being pulled off balance and fell on top of the girl, causing a loud piercing scream to escape her before the air was completely forced from her lungs.

Everything blurred in Don's sleep deprived mind after that. But he did somewhat recall giving Lily a sedative to put her to sleep while she was gasping for air. He recalled having to give Leo a little bit of one too due to the fact that he'd thought that he had killed her. But once he'd calmed down and made sure that Lily was really just asleep Don had told him and Raph both to pack her an overnight bag or something.

The second Don said anything about them taking Lily from her home without permission, Leo told them _no_. But after Don and Raph both told him that it would be okay, that they could always bring her back if she wanted to leave- _then_ Leo relented.

And so after an overnight bag was packed and a few other items were grabbed (one of which was the jade dagger) then Leo wrapped Lily's unconscious body up in the comforter on her bed and lifted her up in his arms and followed his brothers out of the house.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

His son's were gone for over an hour before he started to worry and by then he had Casey Jones, a friend of Raphaels, on speed dial. He figured that he might give Donnie and Raph a few more minutes to subdue Leonardo since his eldest son had a bad habit of being difficult before he called anyone.

While he waited he paced back and forth in front of the door to the lair, expecting to see or hear something of his sons. Every now and then he would stop pacing and look towards the clock hanging on the wall over the TV far, far across the room. Counting the minutes anxiously.

Five minutes. Six. Seven. More pacing. Eight- he stopped again and looked between the door and the hand made phone in his hand. Nine minutes, more silent deliberation with himself. Ten...

His temper flaired a little bit. Where were his sons?


	22. Chapter 22

Splinter had just called Casey to ask him if he had seen any of his son's when he heard the sound of footsteps- three pairs. He sighed in relief and quickly hung up the phone despite knowing that he'd have to explain his rudeness later on. His son's came walking in and he stuffed the cell into one of his robe pockets as the three came to a stop in front of him.

He looked them over, noting that Raph had a bloody gnash on his head but the other two were in perfect condition. And then there was the bundle resting in Leo's arms, Splinter's tail did an annoyed little flick. "My son's-"

"Master." The three greeted him.

"What do you have in your arms Leonardo?" Splinter asked curiously as he pointed to the bundle. Leo looked down at the bundle and blinked as if he hadn't been aware of the fact that he was holding onto something. He started to shift his hold on the bundle when Don slapped a hand onto his shoulder and stopped his movement.

"We'll tell you about that, but first could we move to the dojo?"

"Is everything alright my son's?" Splinter asked as he tilted his head a little bit to the side. Don gave him what he hoped was a happy smile as he nodded his head. Everything was fine. Splinter seemed to consider Don's words for a moment then shrugged. He didn't mind being told why they had taken so long in the dojo. But he did get a _mite_ more curious when he realized that Raph was carrying a duffle bag that he had never seen before and Mikey was called to join them.

Once they were all settled in the dojo, Leo put down the bundle in his arms and Don reached out to move some the blanket back so that his master could see Lily's face. And almost jumped out of his skin when Splinter snarled at them. "My son's- _What did you do?_"

"Hey! That's the girl that saved my life Master Splinter. I remember her face from the alley when she was fighting to protect me." Mikey said as he stared at her wide eyed before turning his head to look at his brothers and asking in an almost childlike tone of voice. "She's not dead is she?"

"No Mikey. She's just asleep."

"_Good_-" Both Splinter and Mikey said in unison before giving eachother funny looks before Splinter cleared his throat and asked.

"And how did Miss Ericson wind up like this?" Splinter asked.

Raph looked more than a little uncomfortable. Leo was...strangely silent. And Don- looked like the cat that ate the canary. _Well, this is strange. _Splinter thought as Leo reached out and picked Lily up off of the floor and settled her in his lap. Splinter's sharp eyes picked up the careful and almost tender way his eldest son held the human girl and something clicked in his mind.

He cleared his throat and tried to shake the odd feeling he suddenly had about grandchildren being in his near future. After all they had only known of the girl a week at best. More time was needed for a true bond to be established. Leo brushed back some of Lily's dark hair, his expression loving-

Splinter sighed. Ah, his son's. They were a constant source of surprise to him. Just when he thought they would have to go without something again, they would find a way to gain that something. Even if it meant dragging it home wrapped in blankets and holing up in their rooms. "Leonardo."

The blue clad turtle looked at him and tightened his arms around the girl a little bit. "Yes master Splinter-"

"What do you think of Miss Ericson? As a woman I mean."

"She's beautiful, kind-"

"She has one hell of a brawling technique." Raph said wryly as he rubbed his head. Leo gave him a dark look but continued.

"She's shy. Was treated poorly and made to feel like a freak by the people who should have protected her. But despite her suffering, she's strong. Very strong. But holds herself back. For what reason I do not know. All I can really say is...um, try not to get on her bad side." Raph put a hand up and muttered.

"I second that."

"I see-" Splinter said before asking seriously. "My son, do you love her?" Leo was silent for a moment, his mind going over his master's question. Did he love Lily? No. There was no way that he could. Not so soon after meeting her, yet he felt a sense of contentment with her that he didn't feel with his brothers or father. There was just something about her that made her special to him.

It wasn't love. Which was disappointing to him since he felt she would be an easy person to love. "N-No master."

"I see. All of you may leave now."

_"Yes master!" _The four said in unison as they all stood, Leo taking his time due to his slight burden. The second that they were all out of the dojo Splinter snickered at his eldest son's attempt to figure out what he felt for Miss Ericson. Though the feelings of love were there- Leonardo was having a difficult time telling them apart from other feelings.

But his son's had never been able to lie to him or hide what they felt before and Splinter certainly wasn't going to let them start now. He smiled faintly and decided to meditate on his thoughts for now since that was really the only thing that he could do.


	23. Chapter 23

Lily slept through the day and all night too without stirring, leaving the turtles to go about their daily routine without much distraction. Raph did his usual workout. Mikey played some video games. Don finally passed out and started snoring. And Leo- He sat in the floor next to his bed trying to meditate and getting nowhere fast.

His father's earlier questions had disturbed him and he wasn't sure why.

He took a deep breath, and almost hissed when he caught the sweet feminine perfume coming from Lily while she slept. The same sweet perfume that he'd smelled before. The scent of her hormones were making it difficult for him to concentrate on meditation.

In fact all that scent was doing to him was making him ache so badly that he wanted to ravish her.

Well maybe not quite ravish. He'd never take a woman by force but that scent was drawing out strange and almost violent thoughts and feelings in him. So much so that he was only able to take sitting so close to her for an hour in a half before becoming so painfully aroused that he had no choice but to leave the room to take a long cold shower.

After which he returned to his room and sat back down and tried to meditate yet again until her scent drove him out of the room again. This happened off and on through the night and well into the morning before Leo finally managed to drift off to a fitful sleep on a makeshift futon that he'd made on the floor with some blankets and a pillow.

He woke up at seven am, something in the room drawing his mind from a semi unconscious state to fully aware in the span of a second. He opened his eyes and did a little look around his room trying to place what it was that had woken him when he heard a small moan and recalled the human female he'd brought home with him.

_Lily_. His Lily.

He pushed himself upright and peeked at the face of the woman on his bed and almost smiled. Lily was still sound asleep for the moment, her dark hair tousled, her face flushed- Without realizing what he was doing he reached out a hand and smoothed her hair back, his fingertips accidentally brushing her slightly parted lips.

He felt her breath on his fingers and automatically jerked his hand back, feeling as if his skin had just been branded and tried to think about what he needed to do today before she woke up. He needed to train, to eat, possibly take another cold shower...

He needed to bring up some food for her, to let her know where she was and that she was safe- but most of all he needed to apologize to her for the misunderstanding yesterday. Then he needed to beat the hell out of Don and Raph for barging in on them- no scratch that, he was going to deal with them _first_ then do everything else.

He'd have to introduce her to Splinter at some point... Maybe he should warn her ahead of time that his master/father was a giant rat.

She moaned again and turned over onto her back, pushing at the blanket she was wrapped in and Leo wondered if maybe she was a little too warm. He waited several minutes and when she moaned and pushed at the blanket again he sighed.

Now sure that she was feeling overheated between the heavy plaid shirt she was wearing, the blanket she was wrapped in and the tempid temperature of the lair, he was surprised that she hadn't have heat stroke or something by now. Reaching out he carefully adjusted the blanket without baring her legs or anything else then went and found the bag of stuff that he'd packed for her and set it down next to his bed so that she would be able to find it once she woke up.

Once that was done, he picked up his futon and put it away and then slipped quietly out of the room. Making his way to the kitchen he found everyone there, waiting for Mikey to finish cooking breakfast so that they could all eat some more of his gourmet home made food. Something that had been lacking for the past week while he'd been injured.

"Come on Mikey! How much longer are you going to torture us?" Raph groused as he leaned back in his seat as Mikey found some basil to sprinkle in the miso soup that he'd made to go with the japanese style breakfast he had fixed in honor of Lily's visit. He had been so excited ever since yesterday that he had barely slept a wink!

He wanted so much to impress her that he wanted everything to be perfect. "Shut up! Cooking is an form of art. It isn't something that can be rushed unless you like mistakes and possibly food posioning. Besides, if your really hungry then eat some cereal." Mikey growled at his brother.

Don snickered at the look of disbelief that crossed Raphs face as Splinter looked up from his breakfast of rice, left overs and tea. "Patience, Raphael."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Raph muttered as Leo walked in. Everyone went deathly silent with the exception of Mikey who turned around and happily started chatting away.

"Leo! Just in time, I fixed a special breakfast for Lily. Do you think she'll like it?" Leo smiled at his youngest brother and walked over to him and rubbed his head affectionately.

"I'm sure that Lily will love it once she's tasted it."

"You think so?" Mikey asked, looking a little bit unsure of himself for a moment. Leo looked unsure of what to say for a moment. After all Mikey had always been confident in his cooking skills. Why he would show doubt now made no sense. Not when he knew how much they all enjoyed his cooking.

"Yeah. I'm sure." Leo said kindly, trying to put his brother at ease. Lily simply wasn't the sort to dislike something before trying it. And Mikey's cooking was so decadent sometimes that she'd be crazy _not_ to like it.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Lily woke up with a soft groan as she stretched her arms up over her head and then popped her neck to work out the kinks in it as she looked around the room she was in and slowly began to realize that it wasn't her bedroom. For starters it was too dark, the walls were stone and it smelled...just a little bit funny. Sort of like gym socks.

Not sweaty, filthy ones. But gym socks nevertheless.

Sitting up she pushed some of her hair away from her face and looked around again. Noting that this definately wasn't her room. Everything in it screamed _'I'm a boy!' _not _'I'm a single woman'_. The stone walls were painted a nice sky blue with electric blue to go with it. There was a dark oak bookshelf with a small alarm clock, books, and a small lamp.

Sighing because she couldn't recall how she came to be in this strange place she started to push the covers off of her legs when she realized that she wasn't wearing pants or panties and blanched. _Dear lord-_ "Well...that's certainly new."


	24. Chapter 24

After looking around the room some more, Lily found the note and bag full of stuff that looked like it had all come from her dresser and bathroom. There was makeup, perfume, lotion, deoderant, her favorite shampoo, the razor that she used to shave her bikini line with.

And then there were two pairs of shoes- both pair were black with three inch stiletto heels, because apparently whoever had packed for her wanted her to break her neck.

Then there was her clothes, all comfortable favorites that she set aside for lounging around. Shirts, shorts, pants, skirts. She had panties- which upon discovering she promptly grabbed a pair and pulled them on. Determined not to be caught pantyless by whoever had taken her from her home.

She also found several bra's and checked herself to make sure that she was at least wearing one of _those_ and sighed when she found that she was. Next she pulled on her favorite pair of cotton pants and then moved to the door.

Intending to peek out and see where she was. She opened the door, cringing a little bit when it squeaked on it's hinges and blinked at the massive room that she found herself looking out into. _What the hell? _She wondered as she stepped out of the room and as quietly as she could, closed the door behind her and stepped up to what looked like a railing for stairs and glanced around again.

The place was at least ten times as big as her own home.

No wait, scratch that- this place could swallow her home whole a dozen times over!

She could see furniture below, several large flat screen TV's, a couch, a recliner, a coffee table- beyond that she could hear the low hum of voices speaking in what looked like a kitchen.

And directly below where she was standing; was a man made pond with crystaline waters, flowers and fish that looked like was well over six feet deep with a small wooden bridge that ran over it. _What is this place? _She wondered when she felt a presence to her left and turned so quickly that she nearly tripped and fell. Or rather she would have fell if a large hand hadn't caught her and helped her upright.

"Careful Lily."

She looked up at the owner of the hand and blinked when she found Leo standing there with a tray of food carefully balanced on the fingertips of his other hand. His expression somewhat wary. "Leo?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you- Where are we-" Lily asked as she grappled with the questions in her mind. Leo removed his hand from her and stepped closer.

"This is the lair. My home. My family and I live here together." Lily noted the prideful note in his voice and turned back to the railing and looked at the room below again. "See- Over there is the dojo where we train. Over there is the kitchen. The living room and lab-" Leo said, pointed to each area then turned her and pointed to a door several doors down from where they were standing. "That's the bathroom. We have a fully functioning shower and toilet if you need to use either one."

Lily blushed and gave him a mortified look. He looked at her blankly, trying hard not to embarrass her further since he knew that girls were different from guys and thus more or less liked to pretend that they never had any need of bathrooms aside from showering and making themselves look and smell nice.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, her mortified expression never changing as she tried to get her vocal chords to work enough to say something- _anything_, to him. Leo chuckled softly and gave her a gentle nudge towards the bathroom figuring that she may really need to pee since she hadn't all day and night yesterday after being tranqued.

"A-A-Actually I-I d-d-don't n-need t-to g-g-go." She stammered out, her face still a nice vivid pink. Leo shrugged his shoulders and reached back with his free hand and opened his bedroom door.

"Well then if that's the case- Think you can eat something? My younger brother Mikey went all out." Leo said in a coaxing tone, knowing that most humans would be wary of what giant mutant turtles ate. Lily blinked at him and put a hand against her stomach and blushed a pretty shade of pink.

"Uh...yeah. I can eat." _I think. _She thought.

"Good." Leo said happily as he moved further into the bedroom and waited for her to come in so that he could set the tray down. Lily hesitated for a second, frowning a little bit because she wasn't feeling the familiar need to eat something and wondered if maybe her internal clock was messed up again. Which usually only happened after being sick or comatose for a while.

She stepped back into the room as he finally set the tray down on the small table beside his bed and then dropped down to the floor to sit and waited for her to join him so that she could eat something.

"How long was I out?" She asked as she dropped down to sit across from him as he reached up and picked up the tray again and set it down across her lap the second she got comfortable as he answered her question.

"Almost thirty eight hours." Lily's jaw dropped and she gaped at him in shock as he grabbed an apple from one corner of the tray and picked up what looked like a pocket knife and started to peel it. Trying his best to ignore the look of shock on her face.

"Why was I out that long?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly. Leo looked a little bit uncomfortable for a moment, but knew that he had to answer her so he figured that he'd just start at the beginning.

"First off- I owe you an apology for my actions yesterday. I was upset and what I did was unforgivable. Secondly- I didn't tranque you. Don did after he and Raph saw you without some clothes on and you freaked. Apparently they felt it necessary to drug you to keep you from hurting yourself and us."

"Oh... Is that all?"

"Uh..."

"Leo."

"..."

"Leo."

"Yes, yes that's all." Leo said nervously. Lily gave him a suspicious look but didn't get mad. Instead she just sighed and sat back against his bed and was quiet for a moment before he finally said.

"You should eat something Lily. The food is getting cold."


	25. Chapter 25

Lily ate the food that Leo had brought for her almost absently before setting everything back on the tray in the order she had eaten it and froze when she caught Leo lounging lazily against the wall, his eyes watching her every move. It was some what unnerving to her to be watched so closely, but she supposed that he did it out of habit.

"Do I have something on my face?" She asked curiously as she lifted one hand to wipe at her skin in an effort to partially hide herself from him when she saw him smile and slowly shake his head.

"No. There's nothing on your face."

"Then why are you staring at me?" She asked, paranoia kicking in as he slowly got up and took the tray from her lap and set it on the bedside table as he mulled over her words. Why was he staring at her? He knew that it wasn't because he didn't trust her. But for some odd reason he just couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

"No reason-" He lied before asking, "Did you like your breakfast? Mikey went all out for you, ya know."

"Mikey?"

"He's one of my brothers. The one you were injured saving." Leo said with a nod of his head. Lily looked down at her hands, neatly folded in her lap and nodded her head before making an _'oh'_ expression before replying,

"Yeah, his cooking is really good."

"He'll be happy to hear that-" Leo said with a small smile as she lifted her head a bit and looked at him. As he headed for the door before pausing in the doorway and asking, "Would you like to stay here and rest some more? Or would you like to meet my family and take a tour around our home?"

She was silent for a moment or so as he turned his head to look at her from over one of his shoulders. "I could meet your family... I guess..." Lily said in a hesitant tone as she started to get up off of the bed when Leo stopped her by saying,

"You don't have to force yourself-"

"I'm not. I just...um..." She started fidgeting with the blanket tangled around her legs, a faint blush staining her pale cheeks. "I'm sort of shy around strange people."

Leo arched a brow at her and made a funny sound before saying, "Really. You weren't shy when you met me." Lily rolled her eyes at him and then looked away.

"That's because I was hurt, feverish and thought I was high off of something. After the second or third time I just figured that you were an alien that had imprinted on me or something."

Leo blinked as his jaw went slack and fell open. Was that really what she had been thinking when she first met him? _That's not a favorable response-_ He thought, feeling just a little bit irked by her honesty though he managed to pull himself together and hid it as well as he could before clearing his throat and asking, "But you got over it right?"

"Well, yeah. I may have a rare illness but even _I'm_ adapable."

Leo's mouth quirked for a moment as he mentally filed away the information as he thought, _That's good to know. _She'd have to be adaptable to be a part of his family.


End file.
